RE#5: WW 17 - Atlantic Revolutions

I really like the intro to Part 5 - I totally didn't realize the Eurocentric nature of everything we do. Time is noted according to their offset from the time in Greenwich, London (-10 hours for Hawaii), and location according to their distance from Europe. For the longest time, when the Middle-East countries were spoken of, or when I learned that China and Japan were part of the Far-East, I wondered, "east of what?". Now I know - east of Europe. Hmm... I appreciate how the textbook has a chapter entitled "Countering Eurocentrism" to display their neutrality - it shows how much more well-rounded the information given to the public has become, and leaves it to the reader to make their own opinions rather than the earlier years when the argument, viewpoint, and opinion was given to you instead.

The European Enlightenment brought to life the belief that social and political order could be improved by human action. The power of the individual, of the people were made aware, strengthened, and ultimately idealized. It's interesting to see how the values and ideas that fueled the American Revolution originated from the very place they were trying to distance themselves from. And while the United States at that time were heavily influenced by their European oppressors, it was noted that the US had less social divisions, less black-and-white laws, and overall more open and free - a new and improved Europe.

"How far should liberty be extended?" - page 501
Democracy. Letting the people have a say/control the government. Sounds sensible since political decisions affect not only the ruler, but every citizen. But who exactly are "the people"? Government officials, schoolteachers, supermarket managers, the general public... prisoners, murderers, babies? If you were to put the future of the country in the hands of uneducated, reckless people, democracy doesn't sound like such a good thing. By this definition, I should be able to murder someone just because I feel like it, and not be punished. There can be no such thing as purely democratic government - it's impossible to please everyone and standards must be kept to maintain a safe, orderly society. Quite the irony.

Random note: Being an art major and taking a class the requires lots of reading like this one, I tend to rely on the pictures to get me through the pages of text. I'm a visual learner, so I like to spend some time on the diagrams, maps, and artwork that correspond with what I'm reading. So I'm going to comment on another picture, which is something I've in almost every post so far. On page 502 is a map of the United States, pre-50-state-ified, which is supposed to display the "original thirteen colonies". The map, however, is divided into 10 colored sections over the entire US, which confused me for a while since I thought they were referring to those colored sections as the original 13 colonies. Then I noticed the small text on the east coast which stated "THIRTEEN ORIGINAL COLONIES" near a bunch of black dots, but then I only counted 10 of them as well. It just would've helped a lot if the map clearly marked the 13 colonies , like this one on the right. It would've saved me 10 minutes of confusion... :)