Eugene V Debs - Revolutionary Unionism

Debs felt that people needed to join together when working to advance society. He felt to truly have honesty and an equal society, industry workers need to work together to make society right for everyone. Debs felt that big buisness owners would be unfair to workers and for workers to have a job without being taken advantage of, workers needed to make unions. He felt that workers are being taxed to the point that they are forced to revolt. Debs said that workers are being taxed beyond the point of injustice. He said that people were being taxed without the protection that is promised from these taxes. Debs asked questions of the leaders of workers such as big buisness owners and trying to figure if these people were dishonest men. He asked if these men were true to the working class and if they had the workers interest in mind when they made decisions concerning them. He felt that not only were the leaders of industry dishonest and untruthful but he went as far to say that these men were the enemies of all workers united. He felt that in all history, the current fashion in which industry was being run was the worst it has ever been for the working people. Debs concluded that to change how industry and the relationship between workers and leaders was at that time the people didnt need to follow them but they needed to follow themselves and know exactly what to do for themselves and their individual situation.

W.E.B DuBois - The Souls Of Black Folk

DuBois tried to prove the argument between appearance and essence. He felt that appearane needed to be looked past in the black community to find the essence of each person. Although he believed in his society that both appearance and essence need to exist together for people to survive. He also felt there were problems in the relationship with the individual and society, and with idealism and materialism. DuBois also brought up the dialectic saying ideas interact with each other and that each idea, even when contradicting, must be thought as working together instead of thought about alone. Another idea dialectic brings together is for things to change into their opposite. DuBois also gave the idea of the late industrial society, he believed that there is a fusion between politics and economics, saying that in institutions slowly turn into both a mix of influences of politics and economics. He also felt that at this time, the condition of race relation laws like resagination were contributing to the fact that the color barrier was gaining depth and keeping the black and white communities appart. He felt that in the late industrial society, superficiality became a real problem because people were extremely concerened with the appearance of the life instead of the essence of each person. In his book he also proved that in the south racial barriers were gaining strength because the black people down south were taking jobs from the white because they would take lower pay. Just as the southerners would take jobs from the northerners because they would be ok with taking lower pay as the blacks do in the south.

William Graham Sumner - What Social Classes Owe To Each Other

Sumner felt that each social class owed enough room for each individual to be able to exist and succeed with out the bothering of other classes. He also believed that beause the rich were more prosperous and were surrounded by resources, they had the ability to solve all the problems while the poor had the oppurtunity to make and be the problems while the rich took care of undoing wrongs and problems that the poor create. He also believed that pity is also found in the poor because the problems and faults of the classes are glossed over to make worse and for people to feel even more sorry for stuff that is not as bad as it really is. He felt that because of the fact that people are attributing way to much time trying to correct problems which arent major and are made bigger then what they really are. He said that undoubtedly society is changing and moving for the worse becasue society is beginning to lose its essence or it's "poetry" as he said.

Lincoln

The Gettysburg Address (1863)
Lincolns Gettysburg Adress was a brilliant short, sweet and "to the point." Lincoln decided to tell America that although they were in the middle of a incredibly bloody and long lasting war, they still find themselves honoring those who fought for the peace of the country. Although he says that no one has to dedicate or honor the men there and that the fact that they left their lives on the grounds, there was no need to consecrate the grounds because the blood did it for them. He modestly said that although the world will forget what was said by people at the Address, they can never forget what the people who died there had done for their nation and what they believed. He concluded by saying that because these people died here, the living will carry on their legacy within the Constitution and make sure that the "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Civil Disobediance

Henry David Thoreau tried to portray the need of people in society willing to change the status quo by acting and misbehaving against bodies of governement which they felt were unfair. Thoreau felt that men had a concious for a reason and that it was to rise against unfair government. The only reason he felt man had a concious was to have a voice in society and ensure that they avoided being subjects first and men second and that voicing their opinions will give way to them being men within their societies. He felt that the only obligation a man has within society is to do what he feels is right and not what the society or legislature says is correct. Thoreau went as far to say that men within a society that act within the lines and rules of the legislature were the same as "horses and dogs." He felt that obediance was the opposite of manhood and that no real man would follow the unjust law of a majority of others. Thoreau felt that a real just man in society only had one place and that was jail. To stay true to oneself a person in society must break the law and thats exactly what he called for people and readers of his to do.