| Response sheet 19, for class, Tuesday | |
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1. Why did Robert Owen believe that the “Revolution of 1776” was still unfinished, 50 years later? Why did he insist upon a “mental revolution” to follow in the footsteps of political revolution? 2. Why did Owen think that individualism led to tyranny? 3. Like Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson fretted over conformity and mediocrity which seemed to him to prevail in American society. Yet why did he assign every single person, not just corrupt business men, a share in the blame for the moral degeneration of American society? What was his proposed solution? Whom did he imagine might be capable of being a heroic “individual” instead of a dull conformist? |