Manifesto

Brandon’s Manifesto of Beliefs
Brandon McMahan
Prof. Wendy Sumner
Manifesto

I started this assignment without the slightest idea of how to approach it. First, when I was told the assignment I never heard of the word manifesto let alone knew what it meant. So you can see the dilemma I had, I went on the internet and looked up the word and found it’s definition to be a public declaration of principles and intentions often political. I was surprised to see that many manifestos and some of them help shape the world as we see it today.

The manifesto that stood out the most was the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It is the key article in United States history, the words in it stood for a group of people at the time declaring themselves a new country away from Britain. It stood for what they believed in and their ideals and dreams, It was strong because afterwards they had to fight for that belief. Now today it is a part of history even though it was written on paper the real document existed in the people’s heart. That was probably the most famous manifesto but there were others like one for Communism which I guess would be along the lines of infamous. Others were about rights to one’s own culture, industry, and war. Some weren’t all political stances others were about technology and art. All shared the same commitment and passion no matter what the cause.
Everyone has a view on how things should be weather it concerns only themselves or reaches a much larger scale like a country or the world. Some for good others not so good.

I believe that our country has gotten away from the moral fiber that previous generations have shown. Today instead of people focusing an trying to right the problems around us I feel like we can’t change our country tomorrow but if we start by what we can do locally years later we can make a difference. Instead we mostly care about what Brittany Spears is going to do next. Everyday you can see segments of what different celebrities have done wrong and highlight the negative when those who judge are worse than they are. It has even affected politics where you have an election where the candidates are bashing each other and pointing fingers like children. Example Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Hillary said it took a president to help Martin Luther King achieve what he has done and Obama took offense to it. Now strangely enough I agree to an extent with Hillary.

I believe that our country is moving away from which it was founded on religion mainly the Christian religion. In government they are trying to separate church and state so much now today. I heard that in one state they had to remove the ten commandments from the city hall building, and in another they were trying to remove certain statues from political buildings. Even here in Memphis when World Overcomers put a huge Statue of Liberty in front of the Church carrying a bible and a cross people petitioned to get it removed. They were not successful but just the thought proves a change in the way people think for the worse. In the media people have to be cautious and try to be politically correct and try not to offend anyone or to spark controversy. Today we have to try and respect everyone’s beliefs and try to suppress our individuality or what we stand for. Looks like everything about how to make money seems like the idea is to try for happiness financially instead of just being happy.

Now it seems that being yourself is a lost concept many people. A lot of people are afraid to be different and sort of copy other people in a never ending chain. Maybe one day it will stop I don’t know. In the end I will try to be nice to people and be myself no matter what any one thinks try to uphold my beliefs which will come out because I am known to be honest no matter what. I am going to do my best in all my classes because I think that it is a good thing to have a college degree because you are more likely to be successful and have a good life rather than most who try and coast through life and put in no effort to achieve anything. With this it gives more clarity to the word manifesto which I had no knowledge of until recently.