Abe Lincoln: The Budding Politician

The beginning of this book surprised me a bit, because Lincoln is shown having more against slavery on economic and political grounds than actual moral grounds. But now we begin to see how Lincoln has transformed himself into the politician we remember. "And so, for the first time, Lincoln began to speak, not in terms of motives, but in certain natural moral relationships, which slavery violated" (188). This, however, appears to be more a political move than anything done from the heart. In fact, " My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia"(189). This shows how Lincoln has no clear idea about what should be done when the slaves were to be freed, and thought of them more as something to be opposed against than actual people and human beings. He was more concerned with what they represented than who they actually were. He seems to think of slaves more highly as it goes on and proclaimed slavery was "fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw"(197).
The ethical decisions that Lincoln faces during this section of his life. He now has to fiercely debate against Mr. Stephen Douglass who loved to antagonize Lincoln about his beliefs. Lincoln was unable to fully disagree and say his beliefs about slavery, since "no Illinois politician could hope to survive in the white racial supremacist climate of Illinois."(222) He was torn between winning the election, and being able to tell what he truly believed. He had to carefully balance his position and try not to offend anybody, much like politicians of today. When he finally felt comfortable to make that argument " Lincoln's attack on the immorality of slavery moved to the center of his arguments. Douglass is aghast and sees that "questions of morality were purely personal and had no place on the public square debate"(226). Lincoln sees differently and this is one of the most important decisions for him. He no longer decides to debate slavery as economically unjust or such, but instead is making it his central argument that it is immoral. This issue would later go on to define him as a person, and his ethical choice now had far-reaching consequences.

Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln : Redeemer President. Boston: William B. Eerdmans Company, 2002.

On the Waterfront

I believe many people in On the Waterfront approach the concept in many different ways. Although Terry's struggle is the highlighted one, many other characters in the film try to find the answer to that question as well. Edy's father at the beginning accepts Joey's death, and does not decide to do anything about it. He realizes the mob controls everything and he is not going to try and go the same way as Joey. However in the end after looking at what Terry, and Joe Doogan have done to stand up to the mob, he decides to go with it and even pushes Joe Friendly into the water. He seems to want to go wherever the wind blows, and when he sees that the power of the mob has been diminished he even gets his justice and pushes Joe Friendly. Charlie, in the scene with the taxi, also tries to deal with that question. He is torn between love for his brother and what he thinks the mob will do to him. He even goes as far as to pull out his gun, but Terry easily disarms him, and it shows how Charlie really does feel love for his brother at the end. He is truly caught between two opposing forces trying to dictate what he should do. In the end, he feels sorry for his brother and decides to support him. Unfortunately that ends up costing him his life, however he does appear to be vindicated before he died, leading one to feel as though there must be some losses in the quest for truth.
I believe that a traitor is someone who betrays a group or somebody for their own benefit. They can get money, power, protection, or any assortment of things, but at the end of the day they are doing it for selfish reasons. A whistle-blower is doing it for their own beliefs and truly believes what they are doing is right. They must also be doing something that will benefit society as whole. This is much harder to decide who is helping society and who only thinks they are helping society. Osama Bin Laden beleives he's doing the right thing but nobody thinks of him as a hero. This is because he does not have a plan for creating things, he only wants to destroy. He doesn't want to enrich the world, he only wants to go back to the way things were four centuries ago, and will do anything he can to make sure it happens.

AMS Q1

Many characters in All of My Sons base their actions on what they perceive society as needing. Joe Keller even admits "For you, a business for you!" (70). He knowingly shipped out defective parts that would kill other men as long as his son could be happy withe the business. He greatly values family over society as a whole and he has taken it to an absurd extreme. In the end however, he begins to realize that in fact society is like an extended family. He observes " Sure, he was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess there were, I guess they were" (83). He has gradually realized that there is no different connection between family and society. Any one of those men could have been in his family, and it happened to Chris. However, there is no real difference between Chris and those other men that were killed. Joe Keller finally decides to believe this when they get the letter from Larry. Larry threatens to kill him, and that is what finally convinces him that society and family really are no different. Kate on the other hand is not convinced, and all they should be is sorry. She remarks " What more can we be!"(84). She is not convinced that this letter changes anything, and that all they should do it be sorry. Larry was a horrible tragedy, but she believes her overall behavior should not really change because of him.
I believe that needs of your family is often more important than the needs of society. Your family not only depends on you, but what you do much more greatly affects it. So you become an important part of it. Try as hard as you want, and you're unlikely to be able to change society. However, you're family can very easily be changed for the better through your efforts. This makes it paramount to help them as the potential is so much greater. However, helping society should not be sacrificed for that. Society is also important, if a bit harder to relate to, due to the lack of physical people you can know. Society is much easier to harm, as you don't feel like you're harming anyone. It's more of a vague object that people think of, and this allows them to justify all the wrongs that happen to society as a whole.

Miller, Arthur, and Christopher Bigsby. All My Sons : A Drama in Three Acts. New York: Penguin Classics, 2000.