ENGL 3540 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Helen Hunt Jackson, Standing Bear, Feudalism
19 Apr 2016
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Feudal society was shaped by inherited obligations while contracts were based on promises that were duties and obligations but these were chosen. The rhetoric of contracts required two positions of equal power negotiating the terms of the contract. Liberalism: society must serve the individual, the emphasis is no longer on the family or the collective because self-interest is now the most important pursuit in life. Eventually becomes connected with darwinism - survival of the fittest. You only exchange contracts if you are going to get something out of it. Tension between liberalism and democracy (and its mitigation): The pursuit of self-interest and focusing on individualism, democracy is undermined by people who refuse to work for the good of the state and refuse to join the collective. These tensions are relieved by the mindset that people become a collective with each other because everyone is joined by their like- pursuits in self-interest. The best democracies became systems of governance that allowed.
