Land of the Free, Home of Corruption
Separating from British rule in 1776 provided the newborn United States of America with a myriad of opportunities. What would our government look like? How would a set of rules be established? Would we have a leader? Numerous questions rapidly developed, and eventually Americans incorporated the Articles of Confederation as a blueprint for their new lives. However, these Articles eventually proved to be weak and ineffective, allowing for civil disobedience, limited protection, and ultimately pure chaos. Through understanding that such Articles would not allow for each and all Americans to thrive and acquire their desired lifestyle, a new supreme law was established: The Constitution. The Constitution, correcting the significant faults of the Articles of Confederation would aim to offer Americans a better opportunity of fulfilling their American Dream.
Certainly, inequality was prevalent back when the Constitution was implemented into society; however, I believe that the rights and freedoms granted by the supreme law have been increasingly misappropriated as time has progressed. Therefore, the misuse of such powers has induced the current societal and economical corruption, presented in Noam Chomsky's "Requiem for the American Dream".
After reading the first three Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power, I realized that my own personal ideals regarding the issues widespread throughout American Society align with those of Noam Chomsky. Now, I wouldn't consider myself Anti-American, but I do agree that we must cease our continuous neglect of the issues of inequality, which plague our society daily. After becoming informed of the negative names Chomsky has received and the backlash that his books often obtain, I expected his ideas in "Requiem for the AD" to be irrational and radical. However, I believe that because his ideas are so straightforward and not sugar-coated, individuals find it simple to take such offense. Chomsky perfectly elucidates the idea that action must be taken now, while we have the chance, because our problems will certainly only get worse.
Noam Chomsky noted that there is "no reason why production in the U.S. can't be for the benefit of people, the workforce, consumers, and the future", because "it can be done"(44). This quote stood out to me the most, because I believe that often times we fail to see what is right in front of us. We easily accept what those "above us"--government officials, CEOs, etc.--have to say, because of the power they possess and exhibit. Rather than accept what we know is wrong, we must begin to establish unity with those among us who know what is right. Preceding his point on page 44, Chomsky includes the idea that certain jobs "aren't coming back...because the 'masters of mankind' have different plans"(39). Oh..if only these plans were actually designed for the purpose of dispersing power and wealth among American citizens. These 'masters' undoubtedly garner the power to establish a form of equality among workers and consumers, yet they easily choose to use their power to their own advantage. Because as long as their wealth and well-being is safe, who cares about the middle and lower classes!?!
I remember learning about workers' unions in my APUSH class junior year and admiring their determination to receive what they deserved- better wages, more hours, healthy working conditions, etc. Big businesses harshly fought back, even threatening to fire workers who expressed their connection to a union. However, despite their best efforts, corporations eventually had to meet the needs of their workers. I believe that that tenacity seen in the late 19th century must resurface today, if we truly want to gain equality for ourselves and the future. We must strive to diminish the concentration of both power and wealth, and guide the nation in the direction of equality. In doing so, the American Dream will become more easily accessible as opposed to its current state.
Taylor I love the title of this post! It's creative, eye catching, and a powerful statement. Your introduction was nice to get some context for the rest of your post, and it adds to your credibility as a writer that you have historical knowledge. It's interesting how you pointed out that many of your beliefs align with Chomsky's, and yet you are not anti-American. Chomsky does not consider himself anti-American either and I think his ideas about people being shamed for criticizing American democracy are important for people to recognize. I like that the issue of public transportation stood out to you being to me that seems like one of the most achievable goals. Many other places do it, America can too! You're right that now is the time for change, because without change things will only get worse.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Chomsky's point of view about the U.S. He certainly does have a very opinionated and unique way of expressing his thoughts about the American society and economy, but I think that just creates a bigger impact on people and forces them to listen to what he's trying to say. Chomsky makes people doubt the ideas they had of the American country and pleads them to take action to reduce inequality, not only socially, but economically.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that inequality in every form needs to be done away with! It has no place in modern America. It saddens me that we as a society haven't changed as much as we should have after so many years. I mean, just a few decades ago we still had things like Jim Crow laws, lynchings, a major gender gap when it came to employment and pay, and so many other inherently discriminatory practices and institutions. Even now groups are still being discriminated against and oppressed when our society should have gotten over the differences already. Inequality is still such a huge issue after decades, even centuries of fighting and striving for equality, and if its persisted that long it could–unfortunately–still take us many many years before everyone is truly equal. I'm so glad you decided to bring up this issue though, since it is such an important and relevant issue today.
ReplyDeleteSo many nowadays try to deny that inequality exists even if it's staring them right in the face, so this definitely needs to be talked about more. We can't continue to reject the idea that American Democracy isn't doing what it's supposed to do, or intended to do.
Most of our history books celebrate the aspects of the US that we can most celebration while they skim over the parts that are problematic. I hardly learned anything about slavery, and I learned nothing about the oppression of African-Americans after the Civil War. My history never talked about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. They also never talked about the European Jews who were not allowed to come into the US and eventually died in concentration camps or the fact that blacks were not allowed to have home loans, which left them out of the housing growth and the opportunity to gain wealth.
ReplyDeleteNo, American democracy doesn't do what it's supposed to do, but according to Chomsky, it is doing what is was intended to do by its makers.
I also found the quote by Chomsky to be interesting where he says that there is "no reason why production in the U.S. can't be for the benefit of people, the workforce, consumers, and the future". I found the quote interesting because I think that sometimes as citizens in this country we often forget that the middle and working class people have a lot of unrealized power. A lot of times we think that the politicians and CEOs are too powerful and that the citizens won't be able to do anything to enact change since it often seems too far fetched to seem to actually enact change. I think that if citizens were to act cohesively in a consistent manner to drive change that our needs and wants would be given more attention and thought by the politicians who may sometimes forget about the working class people in the country who voted them into office.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you in that in order to make a change about inequality in our society, we must work together to solve the problem. Chomsky does present his ideas in a very aggressive tone almost commanding his readers and doesn't 'sugar-coat things', as you pointed out. I agree with you in that people may take offense to this and categorize Chomsky as "anti-American" , but I believe his assertiveness and forcefulness is necessary to get his ideas across to his readers. His ideas serve as an eye-opener to his audience and provides them with a platform to take action now before matters get worse.
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