Democracy

– Religion In English Essay, Research Paper

“…prefers a democracy to any other system, on account of its comparative

advantages, and not on account of its perfection. He knows it has evils;

great and increasing evils, and evils peculiar to itself; but he believes that

monarchy and aristocracy have more.” (p. 920)

Cooper describes a number of evils inherent in a democracy, great problems that

are extremely destructive to a democratic nation. He states that “It is a besetting vice of

democracies to substitute public opinion for law. The is the usual form in which the

masses of men exhibit their tyranny. When the majority of the entire community

commits this fault it is a sore grievance, but when local bodies, influenced by local

interests, pretend to style themselves the public, they are assuming powers that properly

belong to the whole body of the people, and to them only under constitutional

limitations.” (p. 930) I think that this is the most detrimental of all the evils. For

example, in this country right now we have a problem with crime. In every politicians

campaign crime is the number one topic. The controlling of it, the handling of it, the

punishment for it, and so on. We as the American people fear crime. We will do

anything to stop it, even if it means giving up our own rights. The recent drunk driving

law in New York City comes to mind. If you get pulled over in NYC for driving drunk,

you automatically get your car impounded, and you can not get it back. This seems like a

good idea to the law-abiding citizens of NYC. They think that the law only applies to

drunk drivers, and they are not drunk drivers. The masses just don’t think that it will

happen to them. They will be very upset to find out that the law applies to everyone. I

think that what Cooper is trying to say is that it is very easy to give up your freedom, but

it is very hard to get it back. There are laws being made all over the country right now

that are constitutionally questionable, but because the have to do with crime prevention,

the people are all for them. Once you break the constitution, it is very hard to fight back.

This type of evil is the most evil of all. For the legality of something is not taken

into consideration at all when it comes to crime. People will do anything to stop crime,

even if it means giving up their constitutional rights. We have a high freedom society

and that means that there is going to be deviance, but that is the price you pay for

freedom.

In my view, the first step, nature, is the most important step. Emerson states that,

“The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of

nature. Every day, the sun; and after sunset, Night and her stars. Ever the wind blows;

ever the grass grows. Every day men and women, conversing–beholding and beholden.”

(p. 1120) This means to me that without nature you have nothing. This kind of nature

thinking sprang out of the transcendentalism movement, and has occupied a quiet

resurgence in the 1990’s. Nature is the first and foremost. It tells us when to get up, and

when to go to sleep, it tells us to stay in and read, and when to go out and play. For

example, in Alaska in the winter, when there is about 4 hours of daylight, the people

there have the highest rates of depression anywhere in the U.S. That has to tell that there

is something important about nature.

Also, you can learn a lot from nature. For example fractels. They are math

equations that give off the most beautiful, chaotic patterns. A leaf is nothing more than

that same basic principal. Millions of cells forming a chaotic pattern. And if a leaf is

nothing more than cells forming a pattern, than that is what we are also. So beautifully

made, and yet so planned. We can learn a lot about ourselves from nature. Nature is the

most beautifully chaotic thing. It is wonderfully right.