Citizen Ben's Great Virtues

Citizen Ben's Great Virtues

9/29/11

1. Benjamin Franklin had seven defining virtues that left an imprint on the United States. Four of them that left a lasting impression on how we live today include his aversion to tyranny, humor in his writing under a created author's name, idealism in foreign policy and tolerance.

Aversion from tyranny was Ben's first revolutionary idea listed and this had to do with the fact that he wanted to attack the theoretic rules established in the puritan colony as well as those of England. What he strives to do was break down the link that rulers and leaders had between church and state. He believed that "one who leaves the gospel for the sake of the law not only could cheat a whole country with his religion but then also destroy them under the color of the law". He was a very intelligent man who was open to compromise but never would do so when it came to his aversion to tyranny.

Another of Franklin s virtues was humor and this is present in his writing under a couple different writing alliances. He believed that by creating a fictional author he could poke fun at social mores, and political outrages. And although he wanted his writings to be playful he also wanted to make a moral point that caught the people attention. Franklin knew that words were powerful and persuasive so when he wrote his thoughts and published them he knew that create a confidence and self-awareness in America that made political points a common denominator, but with humorous insight to the people living here.

Idealism in foreign policy has a strong supporting idea behind it because he realized that appealing to a calculus of power was only part of the process. He wanted America to have a sense of pride that allowed them to stand up for themselves. He believed that because of its virtuous nature and ideas, as well as liberty and power would be realized by the people of the country and have an influence on the way were subsequently treated by other countries. Tyranny as explained in the reading was established throughout the rest of the world and America was a destination for those who loved liberty and wanted to apply this esteem to all of mankind. Basically he was creating a mindset in America as us the natural state fighting against corruption everywhere else. This is what happens when realism and idealism combines and he was good at creating patriotism from these thoughts.

The last virtue that I would like to speak of is Ben's ideas on tolerance. This is because our country was not built on the virtue of tolerance but rather was something that had to be acquired. His views on tolerance seemed to be a person belief that was not shared by his parents and created a division between him and them. He was raised in Boston and chose to leave because of its intolerance of other religions