Powered By Blogger

Saturday, September 26, 2009

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"


The truth Thomas Jefferson was talking about, in the declaration of independence, was the fact that "all men are created equal." This phrase states that everybody is not created to be treated unfairly than others. Like all others they should be receiving similar or even same "rights" such as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. These are the three things that every individual should have and even though I mention them as an individual’s but together they form the whole group.

According to the declaration of independence the government comes from the people. They decide who should lead it, they decide whether if the choices that are made are good ones. One very important line from the document is that if "Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." Basically it means if the leader or whoever is in charge of the power, becomes a tyrant or too power hungry then the people have the right to remove him from the position and or make changes to the system. They have the right to form their own form of government to whatever they please to their own "safety and happiness".

You can immediately see the changes in the structure and system in government than from the older ones like monarchy. These ideas were developed and formed by John Locke who gathered bits and pieces of ideas for the perfect government from enlightenment thinkers. Those ideas soon formed into what we have now and that is known as a democracy where the people have power and a say in what goes on in their own country/nation.


2 comments: