Ideology is broadly understood as referring to the worldview a person has that is the sum total of their culture, values, beliefs, assumptions, common sense, and expectations for themselves and of others.” -N. Cole Now that we have finished reading and glossing O’Sullivan’s “The Great Nation of Futurity,” let’s begin to “unpack” or deconstruct the text, by honing in on the ideology it expresses. In order to explain O’Sullivan’s ideology, please respond to the following prompts. Make sure you are looking at your glossed version of O’Sullivan’s essay so that you can reference specific passages in his text in relation to each of your responses.
1) What are some specific beliefs concerning human nature and the nature of the universe that underlie and structure O’Sullivan’s thinking?
2) Identify some of O’Sullivan’s values (the ideas or principles he considers to be good or bad). 3) What does progress consists of, according to O’Sullivan? In other words, by what benchmarks should Americans measure their progress? What are the forces, policies, and/or attitudes that contribute to progress? Try to be as specific as possible. 4) According to O’Sullivan, what are some impediments to American progress? In other words, what are the forces, policies, and/or attitudes that hold back progress? Try to be as specific as possible
Some summary about the text:
In O’Sullivan’s The Great Nation of Futurity, one ideology that stands out is of America’s origin as derived from other nations with their Declaration of National Independence basing on the principle of human equality. The author outlined that with the highlighted aspects in mind, there is a deeper understanding of the disconnect existing with other nations and the little connections with the history of the said nation especially concerning their crimes or even glories (O’Sullivan 426). Instead, the birth of the nation served as the beginning of the new history with the formation and continuation of an entirely new political system. The belief is that the new system distances the nation from the past while connecting with the future on the national right of the man in their moral, national and even political life (O’Sullivan 426).
The belief of most nations is on the importance of the majority groups and the disregard for the minority groups. The aftermath has been the majority groups being given the priority at the expense of their counterparts in the minority groups. As a result, there has been the decline of the nations embroidered in the said practice (O’Sullivan 426). The same belief carries with it the importance of the aristocratic group with the interests of most citizens being bypassed for the sake of the said groups or even the interests of many being overlooked for the sake of a single monarch. The governments upholding the said practice have discerned that their history only amounts to a resemblance.
