Individual Advancement vs Democracy essays

Individual Advancement vs Democracy essays "God helps them that help themselves" (Poor Richards Almanack, 722), a phrase commonly quoted from "Poor Richard's Almanacks", illustrates the types of selfishness often seen during Benjamin Franklin's time. Or does it? Is wanting and striving for a better self so bad? Would the reader of such phrase think to himself "Wow, the author is really self-absorbed" or "The author must be a hard worker who values self improvement"? Either way, the real question is why doesn't it say "..... those that help others" instead "..... them that help themselves". You are taught as a young child the importance of thinking of others first and group effort. It is continuously reinforced throughout all areas of your life, including school and work. Everyone knows that at some time or another in your life you won't be able to do everything by yourself. In other words, you'll need others and this is where the democratic community comes in. However during the 18th century, this was not the point. The freedom of self-government we had struggled so hard and long for had become no more than a night's dream erased by the morning sun. Democracy and self-advancement were in a race for the gold as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne thought. Benjamin Franklin's ideas begged to differ. He felt as though the democratic community and growing the ideology of individual advancement (Individualism and/vs. Community, 1306) could coexist together. Franklin, having risen from poverty, felt that he wouldn't have been able to be a man of such distinction if it had not been for Government that encouraged the advancement of self. He felt that without a Government no one man could be content with themselves or their works. He even goes as far as to promote America to foreigners in one essay. He says that "Strangers are welcome, because there is room enough for them all, and therefore the old Inhabitants are not jealous of them; the Laws protect them ...