Tensions between Minority Rights and Majority Rule Throughout the history of the
United States of America
Throughout history, there has been an understanding between the government of
state and it's constituents. From the times where such philosophers as Thomas Hobbes
and John Locke put forth their respective theories of a state of nature and social contract,
mankind has been enthralled with the separation of government and the population it
controlled. John Locke proposed that there has always been a need for a "social
contract"-that is an understanding between the government and the people for the sole
reason of protection and organization. Even in the early days of the roughly adhesive
Babylonian governments, the people strove for organization and protection of their
property. Before that, according to Hobbies, the people of the world existed in what he
called a "state of nature." This state of nature existed before the population of an area
realized the need for a structure and a steady way of life.
Portrait of John Locke, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Oi...
Giving the F-U to Communism!
United StatesThey may have been fed up
with the plundering of their land. Lock explains that the constituency gave up the rights
to rape, murder, and steal in order for protection of property. With this action, the people
put what they thought to be an equal balance of power into the government's hands. The
government, acting as a whole body, has seemed to, throughout time, take advantage of
the people that it represented. This paper will attempt to show how this feeling of
superiority that governments have perveyed through the history of the United States.
In 1894, there was a strike of Pullman Palace car factory workers outside of
Chicago. These workers belonged to the American Railway Union. The union decided to
refuse to move trains with the Pullman Cars thus shutting down virtually all railways in...