Devoir de Philosophie

AN ERA FOR NEW PIONEERS

Publié le 07/02/2012

Extrait du document

I am not a partisan of those who believe that in this country (the U.S.A.), we have passed the zenith of our wealth and wellbeing. The possibilities of the future are boundless. Until now we have destroyed as much as we have constructed and we are beginning at last to pay for that destruction in terms of reduced living standards and health and intelligence. There is a tremendous job ahead of reconstruction and restoration, a job quite as big and infinitely more complicated than the job of subduing the wilderness by the first settlers. What we need is a new courage and a new race of pioneers, as sturdy as the original pioneers, but wiser than they-a race of pioneers concerned with the physical, economie and social....

« 1.

Commentaire dirigé 1) This text was written in 1943.

How far is it "modem" in its preoccupations? 2) America could be "a physical, economie, and social para­ dise".

From what you know of America, has it become such a paradise? What is y our idea of such a paradise? 3) Can you imagine why the American minorities have become "selfish"? 4) Is it only an American attitude to criticize "the men who sit in libraries working out theories" ? 2.

Version Translate into French: "These new pioneers will have to be men ...

wither and pass away ...

" 1) This text was written in 1943.

How far is it modern in its preoccupations? In America, 1943 was a year of intense industrialization because of the war.

And those efforts were made hastily, with no concem whatsoever for the environment.

And at that time, Louis Bromfield was already aware of the aecolo­ gical problem, which was only then pondered about in the 1960s.

His proposai to safeguard the environment thus strikes us as a very modem idea.

Instead of vanquishing Nature, men should try to preserve it.

Besides, he appeals to the pioneer spirit of the American people.

Just like Kennedy in his "inaugural address" of 1960, he thinks that there is still a frontier to be overcome.

And here this frontier represents better conditions of life for ali, and a moral politiCal environment.

As he was running for president in the 1976 election, Jimmy Carter used this last point as a decisive argument in his campaign.

* * *. »

↓↓↓ APERÇU DU DOCUMENT ↓↓↓

Liens utiles