What Liberties Does He Believe Americans Are Willing To Sacrifice?
2. What "liberties" does he believe Americans are willing to sacrifice? Siegfried believes Americans were willing to sacrifice both their political and personal liberties in the name of mass production and mass civilization. Americans weren’t necessarily sacrificing their rights like the freedom of speech or religion—their obsession with efficiency of production was obstructing their personal liberties. In order to meet the production quota, Americans were willing to sacrifice pride in and quality of their work, personal values and accomplishments, and the sense of individuality all in the name of consumerism and material comfort. Because of this obsession, Americans were also sacrificing their political liberties because they were not fighting
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However, I am very well aware that there is a chance that I could, unknowingly, sacrifice a liberty without fully realizing it. I always liked to believe that I am the type of person who won’t willingly conform to something, but I will never really know if this is truly the case. As Siegfried observed in the early 1900s, American citizens were throwing away their personal liberties because society stated that one thing—the standard of living—was sacred above all else. While this wasn’t necessarily true, many of Americans blindly accepted this “fact” and did whatever they could to obtain a position where they were deemed successful by society. This goes to show that people can and do sacrifice liberties without consciously realizing it, which is common in conformity. Now, I can say right now that I will not conform to anything, but this is likely not the case for I have already done so in the past. In middle and high school, I dressed a certain way or bought certain things to try to fit in, or rather, to conform. While it thankfully did not get to the point where I had to sacrifice liberties, who is to say that it won’t happen to me in the future? I feel that when people sacrifice liberties, they aren’t really aware of what it is they are doing or what exactly they’re conforming to, which is why I, at some point in my life, may end up sacrificing
However, I am very well aware that there is a chance that I could, unknowingly, sacrifice a liberty without fully realizing it. I always liked to believe that I am the type of person who won’t willingly conform to something, but I will never really know if this is truly the case. As Siegfried observed in the early 1900s, American citizens were throwing away their personal liberties because society stated that one thing—the standard of living—was sacred above all else. While this wasn’t necessarily true, many of Americans blindly accepted this “fact” and did whatever they could to obtain a position where they were deemed successful by society. This goes to show that people can and do sacrifice liberties without consciously realizing it, which is common in conformity. Now, I can say right now that I will not conform to anything, but this is likely not the case for I have already done so in the past. In middle and high school, I dressed a certain way or bought certain things to try to fit in, or rather, to conform. While it thankfully did not get to the point where I had to sacrifice liberties, who is to say that it won’t happen to me in the future? I feel that when people sacrifice liberties, they aren’t really aware of what it is they are doing or what exactly they’re conforming to, which is why I, at some point in my life, may end up sacrificing