Ignorance In James Monroe's First Inaugural Address

In his First Inaugural Address, James Monroe states, “It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty.” One might interpret this as positive or negative: either people are at their best as a whole when they are educated and united; or they fail miserably when they become ignorant and corrupt. This is a cup half full versus a cup half empty approach. However, the truth is, the cup has the same amount of water in it either way. The only thing that matters is how long one is forced to hold the cup. The longer it’s held, the heavier it feels. The water in this cup is symbolic of the problems with our system. Society, while viewed as either progressing or digressing, can be broken down into …show more content…
That shows that we are, while not necessarily illiterate, definitely not as intelligent as we could be. More people are becoming literate and attending school than ever before, but it is such a diluted education that we absolutely must have college experience, too, to obtain a rewarding job. Ignorance doesn’t just pertain to book smarts, though, but also to our society’s obliviousness. We are so wrapped up in our own little worlds, that we don’t care or simply don’t know about the problems of others. This type of ignorance is the worst because the end result has such an impact on our country. We don’t pay attention to what happens in the news or goes on in the government. All this leads to corruption because we are too distracted by our phones and email and TVs; and Monroe points out that corruption causes our society to deteriorate. This is evident in politics especially. From Watergate to the Benghazi fiasco to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, we have ample evidence to prove that the government is often full of crooked people doing crooked things to further their own