[9.23.11] Unit 1 Interview

I interviewed my cousin on simple questions about the government. Her answers were surprisingly simple and (not-so-surprisingly) blunt. She says that the purpose of government is to guide the people and keep them "from their own nature." She has a pessimistic (but maybe true?) view on humankind; just as how Machiavelli believed that human beings are dishonest and ungrateful, she does as well. My cousin also believed in Machiavelli's idea that rulers should use fear to command the public. "However," she said, "If a leader is too cruel, or passes laws that do not benefit the citizens, or does not reign efficiently, this may lead to the people rebelling." Despite this, she had nothing bad to say about democracy; she stated that a good point of democracy was that people get a say in the government. She also said that a pro of autocracy is that there is less "chaos" within the government, but, however, the ruler may become crazy with the power. She also sensed, like the founding fathers, that putting too much power into one person was not a good choice. She also does not completely trust the people, just like the founding fathers didn't.

My cousin believes that the government is a huge part in our lives, but, since she has little interest in this topic, politics, to her, is just "crap that happens in the government and in the country." (Politics and government are intertwined, so I guess she does not care much about the government.) Interestingly enough, when asked about what unalienable rights people should have and what values or rights the founding fathers considered while writing the Constitution, she said something that sounded overly familiar: "life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to own property." While she answered my question, I couldn't help but wonder if she really thought that those rights were unalienable, or if it was because it was what she grew up with. In 5th and 8th grade just about every history student (I think) was quizzed on the words of both the Declaration and the Preamble. In addition, she thinks that the federal government should be more powerful than the states because "if states have more power, then the effects of the Articles of Confederation will repeat, and then we'll be doomed."