I finished reading George Will's Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983). It was an interesting read I suppose. What I think his major claim is to reorient people's thinking what government does. He says that people and politicians act as if government has a low-view in the public's eyes especially according to conservatives (less government is a better government) and that government's concern is with the material, natural, and monetary. What he claims is that the government, hence the political theory (liberal, capitalist democracy) produces citizens. Therefore, the government should take more seriously what kind of citizen that it produces. I think that he does a fair job at describing what liberal, capitalist, democracy is, although I think his claims to what government should be will not work in america, and since the book was written 25 years ago and I do not really see his views being lived or spoken about, I think I figured right.
At least it helps me at least ask myself what I think government is doing or what it's purpose is. I sometimes suppose that americans just simply assume that liberal, capitalist democracy is good. I am not saying that it is bad. I may be saying that people should look at our politics with a little more imagination. It is as if the whole world would adopt democracy, then there would be world peace. Yet as I look within the united states, there is still violence, crime, poverty, evil.
From the white house website concerning the middle east: Today, Israelis and Palestinians each understand that the only way to realize their own goals is by helping one another. An independent, viable, democratic, and peaceful Palestinian state is more than the aspiration of Palestinians. It is also the best guarantee of peace for all its neighbors – and the Israelis understand this.
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Do you really think the government is responsible for what kind of people living under it? I believe that people should form the government not the other way around. The government should stay far far away from telling people how to live there life, while also upholding a high amount of personal responsibility to what people choose to do. It is not the governments job to raise and discipline children. Thats is where the formation of adult lives start, and ultimately what kind of people, a society will turn out.
Thanks for commenting. This post was about Mr. Will (he is said to be a conservative) and his book. I think he was trying to shed light on the fact that the governmental structures of a nation does in fact produce a citizen (a government that is instituted to, say generally, protect individual's interests, therefore producing self-interested individuals) and that he argues that then americans should take governing more seriously, or something to that nature.
My thoughts were at the bottom. I might say that I agreed with the argument in the fact of his general description of america's political theory but disagree with the conclusion.
I am jumping up and down in the fact that you haven't lost your mind. Government plays a very small roll in my honest opinion of what a person is going to be. I rely on the fact of with a convicted spirit and hard work we can achieve whatever we put our minds to. Let no man or government tell you or make you what you are.
PS i have had a couple drinks at this point so i hope that all makes sense
I think that you are missing the point. I will try to clarify what general points I mean when I say that I agree with Mr. Will in my next post, because this post was not looking towards the direction the conversation is now going. It was simply a very short book review.
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