Whitman’s vision of America’s development is a refreshing an interesting vision national development, but I do not believe it is entirely valid today. Whitman looks at the development of the country in three stages. First people establish the government. Second the country becomes wealthy. Finally the country builds a rich an original culture. Whitman looks at these parts of national development as a series of goals that the American people can complete and advance to the next, but these stages are ever evolving dimensions of the American experience.

 Over the tenure of 44 presidents and 112 congresses the nation has evolved substantially. The nation has included far more citizens in the voting process by lowering the voting age. Over the 140 years since Whitman asserted that America had long passed his first stage of democratic development the country continues to altar its structure. Executive power has gone far beyond the bounds that Lincoln established and the original vision of the founders. The nation does not stop trying to perfect and modify its democratic structure.

Whitman’s understanding of the nation and predictions of the rise of “electric communication” partially grasps the ways the information age affects democracy. He imagined that the future communication would allow America to communicate its unique literary soul rooted in democracy to the world. He did not predict the way electronic communication would alter the nature of the government. The media has always severed as an essential link between the American people and the government. Now the sheer speed of communication creates entirely new concerns for candidates. Candidates must contend the fact that at someone can almost always take their picture a make of video of any mistake. The media has created the need for a constant struggle to maintain a dignified image.

The ease of mass distribution of information also touches on another part of modern democracy, the willingness to suspend democratic ideals in favor of safety. The most power full example of the tension between the freedom and safety is Julian Assange’s dedication to releasing classified information. The document he releases obstructs the nations ability to govern and does put people at risk. However, Americans hold freedom of the press as a sacred ideal. Assange touches a nerve by putting the government and the portion of media directly at odds. This conflict underlies much of the government’ interaction with the press.

Whitman hoped for a nation defined by original literature. Today the most influential part of the people’s participation in government is the ever-present mass media.

Puritan Community

"Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection."

John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Chairity

It is interesting to see that Winthrop calls his community to be like a single person. This highlight the homogenous ideal that the Puritans hoped to find in America. In the context of Winthrop's metaphor that paradox of a group that sought religious freedom, only to deny religious freedom to others makes far more sense. Winthrop's ideal is not of a group of free individuals, but rather an individual comprised of a group of people. A Puritan society that emulating an individual body would naturally be wary of  foreign ideals. If the community was one man as Winthrop hoped than that man could very well respond to foreign material much like a human body. People who actively clashed with the religious principles that bound this body together might very well be dealt with the same way our bodies deal with transplants from an incompatible downer. Winthrop's ideals of a close knit community are admirable and might be valuable in the modern world. However, they did lead to the tyrannical aspects of Puritan that muddy the modern perception of the first New Englanders.

Positive and Negative Freedom in Puritan Society

It was very interesting to see just how much the Puritan dream that Jim Cullen describes in chapter 1 of the American Dream subscribes the concept of positive freedom. He states that to the Puritan's "freedom involved a willing surrender to the will of the Lord" (Cullen 21). This sentiment falls perfectly in line with the concept of positive freedom. Strangely the harsh rule of puritan society is both the reason that modern America sees their society as unfree, and the Puritans thought they had founded a place to be free.

Sailing to America

I really enjoyed Djanikan's Sailing to America. I touched on several things that I could relate to and found interesting. The main element that I could relate to was the shift from the fantasies of youth to mundane reality. As a child continually imagined adventures or games to entertain myself, without any worries about my future or the real world. Djanikan captures the innocence of childhood very effectively. I was also fascinated by the choices Djanikan made with what the speaker associated with America. The speaker's ideas of What to say originate from movies. That makes me wonder how much Hollywood shapes the worlds perception of us. Considering how much what we experience as children shapes are perceptions all our lives, and how much Hollywood exports its film the film industry might be one of the most influential components of America's global image.

Positive/Negative Freedom

This reading reminded me of high school. I attended Blessed Trinity, a Catholic school, and we often discussed the 10 Commandments. The main point of all our discussions was actually a embracing the concept of positive freedom even though we did not learn the term. The main argument that my teachers made was that people need a religious moral code in order to ovoid sin. They maintained that sin is addictive and ultimately leads to suffering. It was interesting to see the larger philosophical context for the worldview many of my high school teachers suported