Individual Advancement vs
Individual Advancement vs. DemBy: Cynthia Lewis
"God helps them that help themselves" (Poor Richards Almanack, 722), a phrase commonly quoted from "Poor Richard's Almanacks", illustrates the types of selfishness often seen during Benjamin Franklin's time. Or does it? Is wanting and striving for a better self so bad? Would the reader of such phrase think to himself "Wow, the author is really self-absorbed" or "The author must be a hard worker who values self improvement"? Either way, the real question is why doesn't it say "�.. those that help others" instead "�.. them that help themselves". You are taught as a young child the importance of thinking of others first and group effort. It is continuously reinforced throughout all areas of your life, including school and work. Everyone knows that at some time or another in your life you won't be able to do everything by yourself. In other words, you'll need others and this is where the democratic community comes in. However during the 18th century, this was not the point. The freedom of self-government we had struggled so hard and long for had become no more than a night's dream erased by the morning sun. Democracy and self-advancement were in a race for the gold as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne thought. Benjamin Franklin's ideas begged to differ. He felt as though the democratic community and growing the ideology of individual advancement (Individualism and/vs. Community, 1306) could coexist together. Franklin, having risen from poverty, felt that he wouldn't have been able to be a man of such distinction if it had not been for Government that encouraged the advancement of self. He felt that without a Government no one man could be content with themselves or their works. He even goes as far as to promote America to foreigners in one essay. He says that "Strangers are welcome, because there is room enough for them all, and therefore the old Inhabitants are not jealous of them; the Laws protect them sufficiently, so that they have no need of the Patronage of Great Men; and everyone will enjoy securely the Profits of his Industry" (Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, 751). He then goes on to say "And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his Approbation of the mutual Forbearance and Kindness with which the different Sects treat each other, by the remarkable Prosperity with which He has been pleased to favour the whole Country."(Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, 755) He is saying in these sentences that America offered opportunities for all, being of wealth or not, to profit. He also went as far as to say that all services are valued in the Americas, that basically without the great Government possessed by America none of this would be possible. He even defends the taxes imposed on the people by Government in an essay entitled the "Way to Wealth" written under the false name of Richard Saunders. He once again proves...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.