Thursday, August 30, 2012

Day one reading - Ideologies of a revolution and Nation Building

Prereading (i.e. write before you read!): Clarify in your post which document you are reading. Have you read this document before (be honest)? How long ago? What is the gist of the document from your memory?

 Postreading: What was the author's biggest complaint about his government? What makes you say so?


  Please post your response in the comment section below.

12 comments:

  1. Prereading: I am reading Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence for the second time. I remember that it was composed to argue England's unfair ruling in the new America.

    Postreading: I believe that Thomas Jefferson's biggest complaint was that the people were being treated unfairly. Jefferson's point was to lay down the natural rights that he believed every man should have. He summarized it in three terms; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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  2. Pre-reading: I am reading Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of independence for the 1st time. I know some parts, like "We The People", but the other then that i dont know any specific passages. I think it will be about how the founding fathers thought that England was to oppressive and they needed to break off.

    Postreading: After reading this Passage out of our nations founding document, i believe that Jefferson totally bashed the king in a very polite and honorable way. no slander was used and his points were good ones to make. I believe that Jefferson's biggest complaint was that the king was abusing his power and bending the laws to fit his needs. I also believe that Jefferson and the other founding fathers would agree that the colonies were getting to big and to different from Britain and couldn't be governed by a country separated by an ocean.

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  3. Prereading - I am reading John Locke on Slavery for the first time.

    Postreading - I believe that Locke's biggest complaint was that men should not have to be subject to any laws. However, if they commit a crime that wrongs someone else, then the wrongdoer's life is owed to the man that he wronged.
    In addition, Locke uses this theory to attempt to justify the slave trade.

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  4. Prereading: I am reading Thomas Paine's Common Sense. I have never read it before.

    Postreading: The biggest complaint that Thomas Paine had about government was that it could quickly become too big and controlling. I think this because he states several times how when a government becomes too distant and regulatory for it's people, it loses it's effectiveness.

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  5. Pre-Read: I am reading an excerpt from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense". I have read an excerpt from this document in 8th grade. I believe it gives -like the title suggests- common sense as to why the colonists of America should break away from England.

    Post-Read: Paine's biggest complaint is the way in which the English monarchy functions. Paine describes the system between the king and the common people as "absurd". In addition, Paine details that the colony is simply getting too large to remain as a colony. He states that the increasing population is in need of their own government separate from their mother country. I feel that his demanding tone in this document presents an urgent need to break away and a clear point of view of how to do it.

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  6. Pre-reading: I am going to read John Locke's second treatise on government. I have never read this document however I have heard people refer to it a couple times.

    Post-reading: I believe that John Locke's biggest complaint is that he firmly believes that people should be treated equally. He goes into great detail about how everybody is entitled to natural rights in a state of nature in which they can live free from outside rule. He also mentions that people as a community have the rights to overthrow their government if they believe that they are not reaching their standards.

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  7. Pre-Reading: I am going to read John Locke on slavery. I red it before but i didn't regognized it just by the title, but later when I red it I remembered.

    Post-Reading:
    Locke claims, that only nature has the power of every human's life and thats why he said that a human actually couldn't sell himself into slavery and give another human the power of his life. ("No body can give more power than he has himself") He says that every one is "naturally free from any superior power on earth and not to be under the will or legislative authority of any man, but have only the law of nature as their rule." He expresses it as if all slaves would actually be FREE, as if it would be their own fault to see themselves under the power of another humans. One of the sentences is more or less saying, that the possibility to choose death instead of a life in slavery, makes the "free".
    For me, a really bad try to whitewash slavery.

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  8. Pre-Reading: I am going to read John Locke's Second Treatise of Civil Government. I have a bit of prior knowledge on John Locke work, but I have never read this document before.

    Post-Reading: John Locke's major complaint in this work is that Sir Robert Filmer has been publishing false truths regarding the king's divine right. He is worried that people believe in the practice of letting the king's "divine right" outweigh basic human rights. He spends most of the document talking about this issue with a lying author.

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  9. Pre-Reading: I have never read John Locke on Slavery nor do I have any previous knowledge of the document.

    Post-Reading: Locke argues that man should solely be under the "law of nature" for his rule, allowing him to be free from all other superior powers on the planet (except legislative powers established in the commonwealth). He believes that nobody can have more power than he has within himself, which also cannot be taken/given away to others. According to Locke, this is the "perfect condition of slavery"; lawful conquerors and captives are obedient and agreeable with one another.

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  10. Pre-reading:I am going to read John locke on slavery, which i have heard a few times before in the history class but never went deap into it.
    Post-reading:I think that John Locke's major complaint is that although the absolute freedom seems so desireable and perfect, it will never happen in the actual society cause it is impossible that every one could get paid fairly. Plus, i did a little bit research on him, and i found out that John did some investment on slavery himself and actually took benefit from it.

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  11. Pre-Reading: I will be reading the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson. As unfortunate as it is i haven't read the entirety of this article before. I could only guess it relates to the rights of the people
    Post-Reading: the rights of the people towards their government and the people's ability to change government should the government impose those rights. Because we lose are independence as a people when a government becomes corrupt and/or unstable. Jefferson was experiencing this(and intensive oppression from the British government as well) as was the American people at the time. Hence the creation of this document addressing those issues.

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  12. Pre Reading:I'll be reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine and although I've heard about it before, I've never read it. I suspect it will be an explanation as to why it's common sense for America to be independent.

    Post Reading: Thomas Paine made a great argument for independence. He starts out by saying because Americans have thought being a colony is alright, they haven't realized how wrong it is. He also makes the case that English constitution is a complete contradiction because they need a house of commons because the king is too power hungry and tyrannical to make decisions that are best for the country, yet he is trusted to check the power of the house of commons even though he has such negative qualities.I also enjoyed his section talking about how our lack of moral virtue has created a necessary evil in the government.

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