Reigning In Hermits: The Conflict Between Individualism and Participation
In the wake of Enlightenment thinkers like Hobbes and Locke, who asserted the primacy of the individual as the possessor of rights and emphasized the resulting legal equality of all men, the question arose of how an individual who originates in a state of nature interacts with society. Early 19th Century writers had an advantage in answering this question over the original thinkers in the form of a grand experiment in Enlightenment theory currently being conducted in America. Here, for the first time, was a democracy run by consent of the governed, all of whom were equal individuals before the law and, according to the dominant religious tradition, before God. The more thorough this leveling, Alexis de Tocqueville argued in Democracy in America, “the less [men] are inclined to believe blindly in any man or any class…all having the same means of knowledge, truth will be found on the side of the majority” (Tocqueville, 435). At the same time that the power of self-styled authorities fades in both public and religious life and people are more apt to simply tow the line, he sees the ties that once created interdependence in aristocracies—economic dependency and social hierarchy—weaken, resulting in the isolation of the individual from public life, or, “individualism” (Tocqueville, 506-7).
Tocqueville’s apprehension towards individualism was not merely a passing worry—he saw in its extreme form the potential for despotism to replace democracy. “Despotism, by its very nature suspicious, sees isolation of men as the best guarantee of its own permanence” (Tocqueville, 509). This tension between personal isolation and participation in civic life surfaced in other contemporary works as well, including Charles Finney’s “Lectures on Revival of Religion” and Ralph Emerson’s “On Self Reliance,” in which the former argued in a vein similar to Tocqueville’s that the nature of democracy will always create this conflict, and the latter disposed of democracy in favor of the individual.
Tocqueville’s own reconciliation of the individual’s natural inclination toward isolation is found in his analysis of the nature of knowledge in democratic societies. On a purely practical political level, there must, he argued, be certain beliefs held in common by all citizens in order for common action to be taken to administer government (Tocqueville, 433). Local government is the individual’s closest connection to the public sphere, and the same selfish impulse that leads to individualism will make it necessary for him to form political associations to secure his interests.
I chose the subject about “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” written by Ken Kesey in 1962 for my research paper because my mother told me years ago of the accompanying film and how interesting it is. Two years ago a friend of mine came back from his exchange programme in the United States of America. He told me that he and his theatre group there had performed this novel. He was and still is very enthusiastic about the theme and about the way it is written. Although I started reading the novel, I didn’t manage to finish it till the day we had to choose our subjects at school. When I saw this subject on the list, which we were given by our English teacher Mr Schäfer, I was interested immediately. So I chose it.
...here is no need to worry about creating new art or new literature when they can just rely on Europe. This can also be seen as a part of the apathy that is created from individualism. Tocqueville believes this to be another problem with democracy and its influence.
Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950’s Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50’s, 60’s where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting’ & its significance towards Ken Kesey’s “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
Locke and Tocqueville were born nearly two hundred years apart from each other. This span of time corresponds to great changes in the European political spectrum, with Locke being born before the English Glorious Revolution (1688) and Tocqueville born after the French Revolution (1789). Much of what Tocqueville and his contemporaries would have written would have taken for granted the innovations to political thought which Locke and his contemporaries would have fostered. Thus, in areas such as the primacy of human self-interest, to the necessity of nominal societal participation in government, to the belief that “freedom cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith,” our authors share a common ground. It is from this common ground that Locke and Tocqueville most radically depart from one another, beginning with Locke’s conception of
McMurphy’s influence on the other patients steadily grows as he singlehandedly instigates reform in the hospital. Each minor triumph he accomplishes steadily undermines and threatens Nurse Ratched’s tyrannical rule. His most notable victory over Nurse Ratched occurs when he changes the schedule in the...
Tocqueville opens the book with a discussion on the equality of conditions that he experienced in America and the general trend toward equality that he sees all over the world. The desires of the people and their freedom to pursue them produce a trend in which socioeconomically, the rich lose wealth, and the poor gain it, and politically, a poor man has the same ability to influence the government as a rich man. This trend toward equality of conditions leads to the system of government that Tocqueville saw in America, in which the majority holds political and social power based on the notion that “there is more enlightenment and wisdom in a numerous assembly than in a single man.” However, Tocqueville warns that the majority’s power can become tyrannical, leading to the oppression of the minority.
In this excerpt from Democracy in America Alexis Tocqueville expresses his sentiments about the United States democratic government. Tocqueville believes the government's nature exists in the absolute supremacy of the majority, meaning that those citizens of the United States who are of legal age control legislation passed by the government. However, the power of the majority can exceed its limits. Tocqueville believed that the United States was a land of equality, liberty, and political wisdom. He considered it be a land where the government only served as the voice of the its citizens. He compares the government of the US to that of European systems. To him, European governments were still constricted by aristocratic privilege, the people had no hand in the formation of their government, let alone, there every day lives. He held up the American system as a successful model of what aristocratic European systems would inevitably become, systems of democracy and social equality. Although he held the American democratic system in high regards, he did have his concerns about the systems shortcomings. Tocqueville feared that the virtues he honored, such as creativity, freedom, civic participation, and taste, would be endangered by "the tyranny of the majority." In the United States the majority rules, but whose their to rule the majority. Tocqueville believed that the majority, with its unlimited power, would unavoidably turn into a tyranny. He felt that the moral beliefs of the majority would interfere with the quality of the elected legislators. The idea was that in a great number of men there was more intelligence, than in one individual, thus lacking quality in legislation. Another disadvantage of the majority was that the interests of the majority always were preferred to that of the minority. Therefore, giving the minority no chance to voice concerns.
The ward much like Nurse Ratched looked perfect on the outside, like the quintessential psychiatric ward, but when looked at deeper many problems would arise. The Nurse used fear and an iron fist to run her ward more like a prison rather than a mental help facility. If any of the patients stepped out of line she would literally shock them back into their place. Nurse Ratched and McMurphy both had one major thing in common, they always needed to be in charge. They would have many conflicts throughout the book, everything from breaking glass to arguing about taking advantage of the other
Locke and Rousseau present themselves as two very distinct thinkers. They both use similar terms, but conceptualize them differently to fulfill very different purposes. As such, one ought not be surprised that the two theorists do not understand liberty in the same way. Locke discusses liberty on an individual scale, with personal freedom being guaranteed by laws and institutions created in civil society. By comparison, Rousseau’s conception portrays liberty as an affair of the entire political community, and is best captured by the notion of self-rule. The distinctions, but also the similarities between Locke and Rousseau’s conceptions can be clarified by examining the role of liberty in each theorist’s proposed state of nature and civil society, the concepts with which each theorist associates liberty, and the means of ensuring and safeguarding liberty that each theorist devises.
This book became the most influential during the French Revolution. Similar, to Madison, Jean Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract states when voting in assemblies, people should not vote for what they want personally, but for what they believe is the general will. In a healthy state, the results of these votes should approach unanimity. (Asheville Reader) This statement is a juxtaposition for corruption of congressmen found with the government. Congressmen who only vote in their own best interest do not have the governing body best interest at heart. Rousseau claimed that the state of society was a primitive condition without law or morality. As society developed, division of labor and private property required humanity to adopt the institutions of law. And according to Rousseau by joining humanity through the social contract and abandoning the claims of natural rights, individuals can both preserve themselves and remain free. In the situation of government corruption remaining free, means free from corruption and governing with the best body best interest at
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, is a psychological drama that forces readers to look at a mental ward, and the inmates, with a different perspective. The novel is perceived through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a native american who pretends to be deaf to listen to the whispers of the ward. Life in this prison-like facility is full of scrutiny and both physical and mental abuse from “The Big Nurse”, Nurse Rached. However, when a new inmate by the name of McMurphy enters the hospital, her power is called into question through his leadership and rebellion. Kesey uses McMurphy, Bromden, and the other inmates to call into question how far one would go for a cause they believe in. Ronald Wallace talks about laughter as a cure
Nurse Ratched maintains her power on the ward through intense manipulation. She is able to keep all of the patients weak and submissive by shaming them and asserting her rule over everyone and everything. “,” (). Because of McMurphy, she at times begins to lose some of her control. When this happens, she tries to manipulate the other patients to turn them against him by suggesting that he is selfish, inconsiderate man that is manipulative towards them so that he only helps them when he gets something better in
The dominant discourse of conformity in the novel is characterised predominantly by obeying the rules described by Kesey. At the start of the novel, all the acute and the silenced chronic patients conform to the rules of Nurse Ratched, the main antagonist, before the arrival of McMurphy. This is demonstrated by the following quote: “…she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor...” (p.5). McMurphy is portrayed as a Jesus figure in the novel. After he arrives, he begins to take control of the patients. He begins to take the role of leader. Kesey has foregrounded the character of McMurphy to be different thus creating a binary opposite that is represented in the novel. Kesey shows the binary opposites as being good versus evil. The former is represented by the con-man, McMurphy, and the latter is represented by the Head Nurs...
Soviet Central Asia remained one of the poorest regions of the USSR until the break- up of the union. These republics lagged behind the others in all social and economic indicators. The shortcomings of the Soviet policy of rapid economic integration were visible by the 1970s and a number of problems including environmental problems were assuming critical proportions (Patnaik, 1995). The situations became worst after the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991 due to the lack of managements and resources. Central Asia is faced with a range of serious environmental challenges, where climate change and climate variability will add to the current problem complex. Climate variability is not a new phenomenon in Central Asia but climate change will add to existing and recurrent economic, social and ecological stresses, risks and uncertainties. With climate change follows environmental change which is manifested in changing resource abundance or scarcities of natural resources and ecosystem services (Nilsson and Ingevall, May 2009). Key environmental challenges include climate change and climate variability, radioactive emissions, widespread pollution, desertification, loss or degradation of ecosystem, salinization, floods, droughts and large-scale natural resource depletion of land, water, forests, minerals and energy resources. Climate change adds to existing economic, social and environmental challenges. Central Asia’s environmental problems are not isolated phenomena but are linked in multiple ways with other development themes across the region. Attaining development objectives such as sustained and pro-poor growth, public health, broad-based employment, devolution a...
Working in a mental institution gave Kesey the insight and knowledge into patients and their perceptions of the world. During his time in the psychiatric ward, Kesey interviewed many patients, to get their perception on life inside and outside the psychiatric ward. This is where the inspiration came to form some of the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “Kesey also ingested LSD, called “tripping”, while interviewing the patients in order to gain insight into their altered perceptions of the world. He even convinced a friend to administer electroshock therapy to ensure an accurate depiction in his novel” (The Psychedelic ‘60s). Kesey had an immense interest in the altered-consciousness. When Kesey was on psychoactive drugs, he wrote some of the most vivid, important details in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “The paranoid sections of the novel where Chief discusses his belief that the hospital where he stays is actually an emasculating factory for a larger Combine that represses individuality were largely written while Kesey was under the influence of mind-altering substances” (The Psychedelic ‘60s). Throughout Kesey’s experience volunteering in the psychiatric ward, he was able to see in depth how patients felt and how poorly they were treated during that time. “On one occasion, Kesey mentions, what’s the difference between the orderlies and the nurse and the patients? He began to see that they were all damaged in some way or another” (Kesey’s ‘Cuckoo’s Nest Still Flying At 50). Ken Kesey’s involvement and observation of treatment, therapy, and use of drugs on patients in the psychiatric ward validate the stories and writing in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “Kesey’s works in the hospital’s mental wards is where he finds inspiration