Aligning Values and Politics
Empowerment Versus Entitlement
By (author) Michael Gendre, Nicolás Sánchez
Not available to order
Publication date:
02 March 2016Length of book:
159 pagesPublisher
UPAISBN-13: 9780761867241
Aligning Values and Politics argues that empowering individuals for self-actualization is an indispensable tool for attaining freedom; therefore, politics must align with the promotion of self-actualization. Private property rights have in the past helped people to develop skills, but such rights were abused. Once these rights are combined with an ethics of responsibility, the book opens the doors to a nonpartisan analysis of income inequality, inheritance, race relations, abortion and governance. The book argues that the American government is engaged in producing “bread and circuses,” inducing people into living vicariously. Using the ideas of Immanuel Kant, the authors claim that we can return to a civil society that values independence rather than entitlements.
The authors explain how President Kennedy’s simple injunction ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country’ has been turned on its head—by both major political parties. Worse yet, an inverted and perverted injunction has become the ethical norm in our public school system, especially for the most talented children in it. In a short, readable book, the authors spell out the ethical values that they believe will help a new generation of Americans create a more gratifying sense of purpose for themselves and their educational institutions. This compelling book could be the basis for the teaching of Philosophy to an increasingly content-empty high school curriculum, elevating the kind of thinking needed to preserve and build up from what is left of our civic culture.