Tyranny Amongst The People example essay topic

Throughout history people have enjoyed a democracy which basically puts the way that society runs in the hands of the people who live in it. In the essay "Severing the Human Connection" by H. Bruce Miller there is a valid argument that our society has turned for the worse. In the past our society has expected everyone to behave in a manner which benefits everyone in it, everyone should respect and cherish the freedom and therefore the freedom should stay. But as we all see and experience every day there is a strong fear of detection and punishment which becomes the only deterrent of crime. Pre-paid gas stations, burglar alarms in every house, guards everywhere, anti-shoplifting tags etc. People tend to behave pretty much the way others expect them to behave.

And, as stated in the essay, if the prevailing assumption is that people are crooks more and more of them will be crooks. Because our society treats everyone like a criminal our society has become harsh, unfeeling, paranoid, and punitive. The human connection has been severed. A society, which assumes its members are honest, tends to be more human and comfortable for the people who live in it. As we drive down the streets of our respected cities we have to worry about certain things like; Is my seatbelt on? Does my license plate show 100%?

Am I driving within the five mile per hour cushion of the speed limit? Etc. And as we wonder about all these things we pass cops left and right who are just waiting for someone to mess up or be suspected of DWI or car theft or something even worse. Is it just me or is it annoying to see a selected few criminals who do break the laws ruin it for the rest of us who don't. Now we have to worry about making small mistakes, which is very uncomfortable to most of us, and sometimes can lead to bigger problems. "Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.

Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development and, if possible, prevent the formation of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own". -- John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty " The above passage written by John Stuart Miller contains a rational justification of the freedom of the individual in opposition to the claims of the state to impose unlimited control upon the people. It also warns of a second danger to liberty, which most democracies are prone to, the tyranny of the majority. In a democracy such as ours, if you can control the majority then essentially you can control everyone.

As shown in the Miller Essay our democracy has pretty much become a tyranny amongst the people. Instead of being able to go into a department store and purchase an item and leave without any problems you have to sift through everything with the ink filled tags on them and then while your walking out after your purchase you have to deal with going through the "steal protection" censors. ' You have a Republic... if you can keep it!' -- Benjamin Franklin The way our society has been going especially within the past ten to fifteen years our republic is not being kept very well. The founding fathers of our country developed the Declaration of Independence, which paved the way for the future rights of the people who live within the United States of America.

Rights, which protected the people from a tyranny, like what they had in Britain at the time. Even though America has the title of a democracy the restraints that it puts amongst the people treats it like a tyranny, and essentially we are not keeping our republic. More and more crime has developed over the years as the United States has become more and more paranoid and punitive toward crime and basic rights of the people. The Miller Essay has summed up our loss of a republic and transformation into a semi-tyranny perfectly. Pre-paid gas stations and hassles at department stores are good examples of this. As well as people carrying guns and other weapons on their pockets wherever they go as the government fear carries over to societies fear of detection and punishment.

The human connection, in return, has essentially become severed.