POL113H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Totalitarianism, Classical Liberalism, Jeremy Bentham
Document Summary
The phrase "what your country can do for you" implies that govt is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man"s belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, "what you can do for your country" implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards govt as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshipped and served. He recognizes no national goal except as it is the consensus of the goals that the citizens severally serve. He recognizes no national purpose except as it is the consensus of the purposes for which the citizens severally strive.