Semester 1 History

Part Three. Essay.

Pericles said early in the war, "My own opinion is that when the whole state is on the right course it is a better thing for each separate individual than when private interests are satisfied, but the state as a whole is going downhill." Is Pericles correct, or not? Explain. Use the United States' present position or history to defend your case.

Pericles is correct.  He is dissatisfied with the state leader’s favoritism of individuals and what comes out of preferential treatment of the separate person.  The right course to take would be to search the relevant needs of the country and make a decision which will be for the benefit of all the people.  But who determines the needs of the country? Why is an individual’s views favored over others? 

The foundational understanding of what is best for society has been lost. If we each disagree what is best for society, how are we to make decisions for the whole? Pericles is correct if society has a unified understanding of the common good.

  Instead, the government determines what is best for themselves. And this false act has influenced the legalization of abortion, gay-rights, and euthanasia.   The US government will only listen to a select few who are considered of the important class.  No thought or respect is given to the people of lower standards who lack proper housing, clean water, and cleanliness.  They deem the right of the public to be of highest importance but they only pay attention to themselves and their appearance to other countries. This self-indulgence is also shown in the past presidential elections.  The people, as a whole, do not really have a say in the decision of a new president.  It is decided primarily on the social merits and virtues of the candidate.  The candidates appeal to the people by saying they will build up the country and make it a better place.  They are not meaning they will listen to the needs of the citizens, instead they are meaning another campaign to stop ISIS, or to put a tax on foreign goods.   Thousands of lives have been lost because of self-indulgence.  Not only through abortion but also because of wars and terrorist attacks.  I think that the reason the individuals needs are favored over others is because most of the time, the person will bring up an issue which is far more ‘pleasing to the ear’ than that of the citizen’s problems.

Roe vs.  Wade(1973) was the US Supreme Courts decision on the issue of abortion.  It was decided with another case arguing the same topic Doe vs. Bolton.  The court decided that a woman had the right to choose up until the third trimester when an abortion was prohibited.  The   history of abortion laws in the United States goes back to the year 1821, when the act of abortion was criminalized in Connecticut.  Justice Harry Blackmum noted that abortion was even common in Greek and Roman times.  Abortion, providing woman with a choice to choose, was one of the first issues to separate the people of the US, and surrounding countries.   Roe v. Wade disregards what is best for the individual because of the child.  This is one of the many ways society is grossly self-centered. 

It is a private interest that society is not going downhill.  First of all, as soon as we reach the age of reason, we are able to differentiate from right or wrong. There are many people who confuse right and wrong with what they would like.  In this way, moral understandings are not unified. People think that what is good for you is indulgence and in reality the only thing we can determine is what is best for society.  Second, who really believes the act of abortion is right?  Not only does it kill the baby, it hurts the woman and hurts society as a whole. The basis of a mother’s existence is to nurture life. Not all woman know what they are doing. Either they were taught as a child that abortion was the right choice, or they were mislead and thought it was an escape from unhappiness.   This concept applies to the act of euthanasia, or mercy killing.  Some people want to escape all the chaos and unrest of the world.  How can our country become unified if so many people want to escape it?    

This disunity makes us all weaker.  If we all would work together, we could become strong and fearless, but instead we are afraid to say things.  

There is even disunity within the Catholic Church. We can see that, especially this year of 2017, when four cardinals criticized Pope Francis I encyclical, Amoris Latetia.   Individuals created an opinion that fortified invisible barriers between Catholics.  

Pericles worried about a city-state, we have to worry about a nation which has no sense of unity.