Ameritocracy is what I define as the American style of democracy. Its creation was like no other. At the constitutional convention, our founding fathers created a nation contingent upon it citizens participating within the system. Furthermore, no other political system created the dynamics created by Ameritocracy. As written in the preamble of the consitution, all men are created equal. And, the American democrat has an insatiable thirst for equality. Throughout our history, movements have developed, and civil wars have been fought in the name of equality. This begs the question, are we living up to this responsibility?
A great French political philosopher by the name of Alexis De Tocqueville once wrote about the potential problems Ameritocracy would once face. Namely, this great philosopher predicted that apathy will plague the masses. This apathy would cause Ameritocracy to become stagnant, and immobile. This immobility, in turn, would make the American democrat susceptible to what De Tocqueville deemed as 'soft tyranny'. That is, Americans will become so removed that a small group of people will be able to take control of the government through the guise of free elections, and this will strip the American of their political liberty. Has De Tocqueville's forecast come true?
Partially. Apathy, both political and non-political, is widespread amongst America, specifically the younger generation, my generation. More and more, I observe my fellow peers removed from the state of affairs, caught up in there own small circle, disinterested in issues that confront this great nation. A problem arises. How are we supposed to combat the possibility of a Tocquevillian soft tyranny if many of the members of generation x are apathetic?
The answer is neither clear nor simple. It is going to take a collective effort by society to combat this problem. We, somehow, must cultivate a society of action. It is the mission of this blog to explore ways to encourage the development of a society of action. This will be done through examining the current American polity(There will be many posts about the election of 2008), and other topics that arise out of this examination. I look forward to blogging over the coming weeks and months, and sincerely hope that I can contribute to increasing awareness and participation in my generation.
2 comments:
I am happy to see that you are taking action to promote political views and seek the involvment of the dissaffected youth of America. Young people in this country have to get off their asses and get involved. Kudos to you for making this effort.
MFM
It is now 2012, I am enrolled at Florida A&M and throughout my matriculation i've bared witness to many different types of injustice and i must say the apathy is real and increasingly contagious amongst the masses here on campus. however, it's collectively organized into a state of Nationalism that we are growing together to seek out Truth and understand ourselves as well as others in the human family. I know this is a far fetched idea due to the era of this post but i'd like to get into contact with you just because and let God handle the rest. @Ty_OFA on twitter
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