Growing up as a Bostonian, I was pretty much taught that the British were evil monster tyrants and the great people of the best colony fought their little hearts out to make the evil Brits sail back across the Atlantic. Fourth of July is the best holiday and pilgrims were cool. I now know this is pretty one-sided the amazing new government the new United States created was not all that great or original. The claims of the post-revolutionary United States are extremely lacking in factual evidence, but Zinn’s piece on tyranny gave me a new perspective on why it was so wrong.<\/p>\n
The ideas of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” sounds great on paper but upon further examination these terms can be as restrictive if not more restrictive than what the British imposed on the colonies in the first place. Maybe because the new system was “American” and new to them we was why it appealed to its citizens so much, but people only really have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness when that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not infringe on others’ life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n
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The United States may be better off now than it was before, but we are mot definitely not a just, completely equal, perfect society. We still have injustice, we still have leaders who don’t always put our needs first, and immerse disparities in health, wealth and happiness. Not that I have not thought of the United States as a bit broken from other readings in this class, but I think Zinn sheds a new light on how our specific society has been unequal since its foundation, even despite its claim that they replaced control with freedom and oppression with representation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growing up as a Bostonian, I was pretty much taught that the British were evil monster tyrants and the great people of the best colony…<\/p>\n