American Ideology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

American Ideology - Essay Example Politics, like diplomacy, is the art of the postponement of hostilities, in the way people try to resolve their political, economic, and ideological differences. However, it is a fact that people will still try to bicker and debate on their differences despite the best efforts, because some people have a hard set of ideas or ideologies which cannot be swayed. This is in effect the essence of democracy, in which various ideas are welcomed and tolerated. Ideology can range from the extreme left (very liberal) to the middle to the extreme right (conservative) and this brief essay is a position paper as it examines both these two ideologies. Discussion Ideas are rarely truly original or innovative, most of these ideas are either influenced by earlier ideas or mere improvements or adaptations of much earlier ideas in human history. In this regard, history works in only a one-way street, which means earlier ideas can influence later ideas, as people go through their lives and human history unfolds in a deterministic way. This philosophy postulates that every human idea, action, and decision is a consequence from prior events or antecedent state of affairs. Along this line, history and ideology works in the same way; nothing exists in a vacuum and both Hitler and Einstein were also influenced. Question No. 1 – socialism is an economic, political, and social principle which states that the general public (the common masses) should own and control public properties or the so-called commons (the natural resources open to everybody for exploitation and their use); it further advocates public ownership of the means of production in society, such that there will be no private ownership of these same means of production for goods and services. Socialism is an adverse reaction to excesses of a free-market capitalism which arose out of the Industrial Revolution in England back in the eighteenth century; it (the Industrial Revolution) changed the wealth paradigm from own ership of vast tracts of land to ownership of the means of production, namely the new factories and assembly lines. This is a new economic system but the new class of capitalists exploited the masses of laborers by hiring them at subsistence wages, working in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, no minimum working hours and no minimum or living wage, the widespread use of child labor, and the repression of progressive social ideas such as labor unions or in not letting the workers' voice be represented or heard. Socialism therefore is in opposition to the main and cherished ideals of capitalism that are centered on egoism and self-preservation through the so-called â€Å"invisible hand† of Adam Smith in which free markets are supposed to be self-regulating and all are to be supposedly benefited by the profit motive. But modern economics show this does not really always work out as envisioned because capitalism implies fierce competition in free markets and this leads to undue wea lth accumulation by a few individuals (the capitalists or new elites of society). Modern economics always struggle with issues of scarcity and socialism is the best way to solve it. Albert Einstein believed that humans are capable of going beyond Veblen’s so-called â€Å"predatory phase† in the collective human experience of social development, which is reason for socialism to be adopted as the best system for human society. Reason is the key to achieving the social-ethical