Editor,
The current state of society is in conflict over whether capitalism will sustain our existence or if government regulation and redistribution of wealth will suffice.
Individuals change sides in this debate on different issues constantly. For example, many people who feel government regulation infringes upon their personal liberties also would take a woman's right of choice away. Is that logical?
Society's conflict exists because of the original theme of the United States, "fear of tyranny." This "fear" came from the hatred of English taxation and control over the American colonies. "No taxation without representation" is a noble, but yet selfish, motto. Do we have "tyranny of the wealthy" now? Is that worse? I think so!
We must remember that affluent Anglo men, who were land and slave owners, primarily wrote the U.S. Constitution. They believed that everyone is entitled to property, and they were entitled to defend what they owned. These beliefs existed even though the property they owned had been violently stolen from American Indian tribes or were slaves who had been violently stolen from their homes thousands of miles away.
Is this irrational hypocrisy what we want to say our country was founded upon? Not me!
Free enterprise and the corresponding flow of competition have brought about easily disguised means of greed and corruption. We are injected with the need to "be all you can be" everyday. We are hypnotized by the belief that we should all be millionaires. Is that a moral or religious belief? I do not think that any greater being would want us to use the less fortunate to make money.
A comparison of the modern United States with our founding fathers' colonies displays a vastly different social structure. How can businesses, laws and social rules that were created hundreds of years ago for people of the same cultural and ethnic origin govern our diverse society?
Most of us have nothing in common with the so-called founding fathers of the United States!
I say the role of society is to help those who cannot help themselves!
-Jeremy Toulouse
Political science student
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