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Constitution about tyranny
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Thomas Jefferson once said “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” Over time I have begun to believe that America is evolving into a dystopian society and it is caused greatly by the fact that the United States is a tyranny disguised as a democracy. The reason that the United States government isn’t understood to be a tyranny is because they don’t directly oppress their citizens, but through psychological control make us indirectly oppress ourselves.
The government uses many forms of psychological control to trick citizens into giving away their rights, ‘for their own good’. They play on our emotions to make it seem like they are always just trying to help us, or make things easier, safer, better, etc. etc. They distort things to make them seem sad or scary so that we will have a stronger reaction to them and demand results from the government. The main emotion that the government plays on is fear. When you put fear into people they are more eager to ask for ...
You may be thinking how did the constitution stop tyranny? Well we have the answer. Let's start of with what tyranny means, that a leader or king abuses their power. How did the constitution guard against tyranny? Well they abuse their power bad deeds. The constitution guard against tyranny in these four ways. Federalism, separation of power, checks and balances, and small states vs. large states.
“Give me liberty, or give me death.” We must diminish tyranny among our government. How did the United States accomplish this? After the Revolutionary War, the Founding Fathers decided to construct a government that was of the people, by the people, and for the people. By doing so, they needed to prevent the more than likely possibility of overbearing power falling into the hands of one or a few people, in other words a prevention of tyranny was needed (1769). This structure was stated in the Constitution, a written document that framed our American government, and so the Constitution declared four ways to prevent tyranny: Federalism, Separation of Power, Checks and Balances, and the Great compromise.
James Madison once said,” All men having power ought to be distrusted.” Through these words, Madison made the statement that not all government officials use their authority for good; some abuse that power and use it to gain more for themselves rather than vesting it within the people. This issue may lead to tyranny. Tyranny is when all powers belong to only one person or group. In May of 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia to draft a better constitution. One of the topics that concerned many was how the constitution would guard against tyranny. Madison and the other delegates wanted a Constitution that would be strong enough to unite the states and the people together without letting there be one person or group gain too much power. They achieved this in several ways. Today, the U.S. Constitution guards against tyranny by including a separation of powers, federalism, and the fair representation of states.
In the Summer of 1787, fifty-five delegates representing 12 out of the 13 states in Philadelphia to fix the Articles of Confederation. They met in philadelphia because the Articles of Confederation was too weak. Shay’s rebellion was the end of the Articles of Confederation bringing down the whole network calling for a change of government. They did this to prevent a tyrant or tyranny. A tyrant/tyranny is when someone or a group abuses their power. The Constitution guarded against tyranny through Federalism, Separation of powers, Checks and Balances, and The Great Compromise.
In this excerpt from Democracy in America Alexis Tocqueville expresses his sentiments about the United States democratic government. Tocqueville believes the government's nature exists in the absolute supremacy of the majority, meaning that those citizens of the United States who are of legal age control legislation passed by the government. However, the power of the majority can exceed its limits. Tocqueville believed that the United States was a land of equality, liberty, and political wisdom. He considered it be a land where the government only served as the voice of the its citizens. He compares the government of the US to that of European systems. To him, European governments were still constricted by aristocratic privilege, the people had no hand in the formation of their government, let alone, there every day lives. He held up the American system as a successful model of what aristocratic European systems would inevitably become, systems of democracy and social equality. Although he held the American democratic system in high regards, he did have his concerns about the systems shortcomings. Tocqueville feared that the virtues he honored, such as creativity, freedom, civic participation, and taste, would be endangered by "the tyranny of the majority." In the United States the majority rules, but whose their to rule the majority. Tocqueville believed that the majority, with its unlimited power, would unavoidably turn into a tyranny. He felt that the moral beliefs of the majority would interfere with the quality of the elected legislators. The idea was that in a great number of men there was more intelligence, than in one individual, thus lacking quality in legislation. Another disadvantage of the majority was that the interests of the majority always were preferred to that of the minority. Therefore, giving the minority no chance to voice concerns.
Tyranny riddles many forms of government, such as oligarchy, absolute monarchy, dictatorship, autocracy, and totalitarianism. In May of 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia gathered to create a stronger central government -- while avoiding the tyranny that so many other forms of government had allowed for. James Madison, of one those very same delegates, defined tyranny as “The accumulation of all powers...in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many...” in Federalist Paper #47. The key to the protection against tyranny in the American Constitution was the way in which power was divided. The Constitution guarded against tyranny by making provisions for federalism, the separation of powers, checks and balances of power, and fairly equal congressional power.
The scenes in creation being intellectual, the put together of constitutional democracy was very empirical. The Constitutional Convention was convened to formulate the constitution. What had to be clear was that the only way to assure a functioning constitutional democracy was the public's discussion. In philadelphia the delegates compromised. The outcome was to integrate states with large populations and states with small populations with a bicameral legislative branch. Also compromises that guaranteed say from both slave owning states and non-slave states could be listened to. The Bill of Rights
The United States of America is a republic, or representative democracy. Democracy, a word that comes to us from Greek, literally means the people rule (Romance, July 8). This broad definition leaves unanswered a few important details such as who are the people, how shall they rule, and what should they rule on (July 8). Defining the answers to those questions means defining a model for a democratic system. William E. Hudson defines four such models in his book American Democracy in Peril: the Protective, Developmental, Pluralist, and Participatory models of democracy (Hudson, 8-19). Of these models, perhaps Participatory comes closest to an ideal, pure democracy of rule by the people (16-19). In practice, however, establishing a stable ideal democracy is not entirely feasible. In a country the size of the United States, it quickly becomes unwieldy if not impossible to have direct rule by the people. To overcome this, the compromise of the representative system allows the people to choose who will rule on a regular basis. The political culture that defines American politics shows that despite this compromise, America is still very much a democratic society.
It is of mixed opinions as to the popularity of modern society and that of the current government. Some believe the United States is, frankly, the best and most free country. They are those who enjoy the freedoms granted by the government and indulge themselves into the American culture. Others are not as fond; always searching for an excuse to criticize the current happenings, whether they be in the government or on the streets. In previous decades, such as the 1940s, the majority of citizens shared the more patriotic view. When comparing the current United States as a whole to that of a dystopian society, it becomes clear that the former faction may be looking through rose colored glasses. The dystopian motifs in George Orwell 's 1984 stemmed
The worries of yesterday Eventually, we will have a tyranny without a strong, trustworthy constitution. We do not want to recreate exactly what the colonists were trying to avoid and escape from, which was tyranny. Tyranny refers to when a person has a lot of power, and has a lot on their hands, having complete control, and total control. In 1787 a group of delegates from 12 of the 13 states goes together to try to better the country.
Given the research conducted for this essay, and the articles provided, it is indeed clear that we are headed in the direction of an autocracy, both in terms of technology, politics, and law. As terrorist groups continue to conspire and carry out attacks across the world, we are only growing ever more desperate, believing that our government will save us, or that we must be more aggressive towards our enemies to keep ourselves safe. Yet, we naturally fail to realize that more aggression only leads to more hatred towards us, thus, more members of terrorist groups, thus, a greater need for government control. If we wish to stop the “birth of Big Brother”, as seen in”1984” we must aid countries in need of supplies, instead of helping them, and,
The United States of America is the oldest republic in the world. We were established in 1776. Many people in the U.S. take your freedoms for granted; however, in some countries the people have no freedoms. One government system that it very different than the U.S. is authoritarian governments. Authoritarian governments have unlimited control and can inherit or take their power.
Our government is inexorably moving to a kind of democratic dictatorship. Where we vote for those that would totally control our whole life…in all respects. They just slowly add things that enslave us. You don’t even notice them sneaking up on you.
The matrix of domination is a complex social and psychological construct common in humans but has a unique perspective in the United States. There is an underlying cosmology that men are better leaders, less emotional and generally have a better thought process than women in general.
The US is supposedly the most free, democratic, fair and just country. However, at the core is a h...