The original write up, which was accidently nuked by a certain god:
Of the critical values of our government, very few were original ideas. While this may surprise the average underclassman, a 2001 senior, after studying the government of ancient Greece, has no doubt that the founding fathers borrowed heavily the ideas of this bold civilization.
The Greek government itself proved the ideas could work, but the most critical concepts themselves came from specific Greek philosophers. Of those philosophers, it was Socrates that gave us our most important idea about government. The idea that it is essential to have a healthy distrust of government first came from the soldier-philosopher Socrates, and is the most important concept passed on by the Greeks.
Without this type of thinking, the United States would not exist today at all. No other idea given to us from ancient civilizations, like equal standing in the eyes of the law, would matter without the concept of distrust of rule as a whole. Without our independence, we would never have had a reason to draft our own constitution, so we would not had a reason to use anything else discovered by the Greeks.
Perhaps without our distrust of our government, our constitution would not have lasted the 200+ years it has. A distrust of government, and institution in general, keeps the citizens and the government both modern and accommodating. If we trusted everything our government told us, like ducking and covering during a nuclear attack, who knows where we would be. Sometimes it is the public’s common sense that keeps the government in check.
After studying the origins of our government only briefly, it is already apparent that we have a lot to owe for how we live today. We owe the Greeks, and more specifically Socrates, a great deal for helping shape our government.
node your homework!
Mr. Dan Southard
US Constitution
Buena High School