In addressing this response, it is necessary to first define the terms “society” and “individual.” In this case, “individual” refers to one person and “society” refers to the aggregation of these “individuals.” By those definitions, societies have been around since the beginning of mankind: cavemen travelled in groups, and although they may not have settled with the same people in a permanent location, I still believe these groups could be referred to as “societies” since they were comprised of individual people living together. What is thought of as a “society” today is larger, more advanced, and more structured than the caveman society. Today’s societies have things like education, laws, economy, family, media, entertainment, and technology. Today’s societies are regulated by governments that must manage the individuals within their society. In order to have a functioning society it is important for the government and the individual citizens to work together and uphold their duties: a government must be respectful to and include all of its citizens, and citizens must be respectful to their government and include all of the other citizens in society. The writings of Thomas Jefferson, Katy Stanton, and Martin Luther King Jr. show how American society and individuals felt that these duties were important as well.
Governments must represent all people and their goals and beliefs. This is a crucial way that all individuals can be included in their society. The Declaration of Independence shows that the founding fathers of America realized this as well. One of the claimed “truths” colonial Americans believed “self-evident,” and therefore crucial for Great Britain to acknowledge, was that a ruling government derives their “just powers from the consent of the governed” (Jacobus 80). In writing this, Thomas Jefferson implied that King George did not have the consent of the colonists; King George did not represent all of the individuals he claimed to govern. We know from history that, the Americans separated from Great Britain during the Revolution because King George did not represent the colonists and did not include them in his government. Still, the American government that formed after their independence was not perfect either. The Declaration of Independence claimed that all white men were given rights, omitting women and blacks (80). These underrepresented people eventually petitioned and fought for rights, led respectively by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Martin Luther King Jr. Stanton mimicked the structure and diction of the Declaration of Independence, but added the idea that “all men and women were created equal,” proving that women deserve the same rights as men (204). Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr. petitioned segregation of African Americans by caucasian Americans in his letters from Birmingham Jail stating that, “it gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority” (219). Both Stanton and King argue that the American government was not just in repressing certain peoples in society. The American government needed to include these groups in the government in order to promote a successful society. These individuals have duties too; citizens must respect their government and work with their leaders in order to promote cooperation. The diction and tone in Martin Luther King Jr.’s letters shows this respect: in responding to his critics, some of them being very violent, King calmly explained that “since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable term” (214). King uses rational, calm diction that shows he respects other citizens in America and that shows he respects the American government, even if he is pointing out their representative faults.
It is imperative that individuals to respect their government and that governments include and represent all individuals in order to have a functioning society. This is reflected in the evolution of American society through the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Martin Luther King Jr.
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