The Paradoxes Entailed in America's Self-Evident Truths Essay

The Paradoxes Entailed in America's Self-Evident Truths - Essay Example Is American democracy a representative of a true democracy? Does it cater the smaller factions of society? Has the democratic system fostered the rights of liberty, justice, life and pursuit of happiness to good effect for masses once challenged by terrorism, racism, poverty and recession? What good it has brought to its people? Why does America deserve to lead world community? Finally, conclusion is inquired about by addressing the question that How American dream can be pursued in its true democratic meaning? Isn’t it strange that few render democracy as the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people? On the other hand, for some, it is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; the idea of freedom. Idea of democracy as rule of people traces its expression from Athens in ancient Greek. From a philosophical stand point doctrines of natural law evolved into the idea of natural rights, i.e., all people have certain rights, such as self-preservation, that cannot be taken from them. Then, why should majority rule minority? Tocqueville (1945) argues that the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people and the power of public opinion are corollaries to the idea of equality. If all are equal, then no one person has any basis to claim the right to rule other. The only just way to run a society, therefore, is to base decisions on the will of the majority. But does the fact accord moral justification to it? This question has triggered a debate between two main schools of thought in philosophy, naturalists and positivists, for centuries. Naturalists believe that a system of governance should primarily be moral in nature whereas positivists believe that question does not necessarily have be answered in a moral dictate as any law or system of governance posited by man should be taken as such and can be debated for its pros and cons independent of m oral enquiry. Many positivists justified Nazism using the argument. John Finnis (1983) argues that it was only the end of Nazism which marked revival of moral justifications of laws/system of government. Ironically, question of whim of a majority more moral than the whim of a dictator struggles to provide a definite answer.Yet the problem with democracy is that it can quite easily lead to despotism. Tocqueville (1945) believes that if there are no checks on the power of the majority to influence the government, then it will have absolute power and those in the minority will be helpless to resist. If all are equal then no opinion has greater weight than another. It is logical to conclude that the opinion held by the majority must be the best one. As a result, there is a tendency to abandon freedom of thought in democratic societies. Going against the opinion of the majority is seen as an indirect claim to the superiority of one's own opinion, which is directly contradictory to the pr inciple of equality. Kimon Lycos (1987) points out that Plato described democracy as a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequaled alike. Likewise, Tocqueville (1945) argues, "Formerly tyranny used the clumsy weapons of chains and hangmen; nowadays even despotism, though it seemed to have nothing to learn, has been perfected by civilization. . . Under the absolute government of a single man, despotism, to reach the soul,

Chinese Current Religion Development Situation Term Paper

Chinese Current Religion Development Situation - Term Paper Example Indeed, the religion has enjoyed a lot of support from the masses and became a guiding ideology in the Chinese context. However, Confucianism did not actually develop into a concrete national belief. Presently, over 85 % of the Chinese people subscribe to some form of religious orientation while the rest are regarded as real atheists. The atheists comprise those who do not have any religious guiding philosophy and do not engage in any religious activities in their lives. Since the beginning of Chinese history, religion in the country has always been characterized by pluralism. Religion in the country basically depends upon the free will of the people and does not really require any form of adherence. In this regard, Buddhism remains one of the most widely practiced forms of religion in the country. Indeed, this religion has a very rich history in the country dating back to the 1st century. In the same way, popular religion is one of the most widely accepted religious traditions. ... Christians make up close to 4% of the total population while Muslims stand at 1.5%. It is further important to note that several religious movements are scattered across the country considering that China is a very large country with a huge population. Many of the intellectuals in China mostly subscribe to Confucianism. Indeed, religion is a very integral part of Chinese society and this is clearly evidenced through the presence of many tall religious statues across the country. These statutes were created to represent various deities and religious personalities from the different forms of religion realized in the country (Clart, 54). The republic of China was established in 1949 and the government of the country is officially atheist. Indeed, the government views religion as a form of feudalism and an imposition of colonialism on the people and does not therefore support or regard any religion as above the other. However, the people of China are always free in terms of making their decisions. More importantly, the government has established a strong separation between the state and the church. Much of the changes with respect to religion were realized during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1967 which was a policy basically geared towards the elimination of religions. During this time, many places of worship in the country were destroyed. There was a considerable relaxation of this policy in the 1970s which marked the end of the Revolution and subsequently religious expression was permitted in the country (Jenner, 46). The 1978 Constitution of China guarantees freedom of religion for everyone in Article 36. As such, it is a policy that no one shall be discriminated upon on the basis of their religion or compelled to join any religion. There