Make America Great Again: The Most Effective Form Of Government

Over the past few weeks we've analyzed many different forms of government and philosophers from Western Civilization. It's interesting to see all the different ideas proposed, and by analyzing different forms of government from a normative standpoint, I'm beginning to gather my own opinions regarding the most effective form of government. I'm also beginning to notice different ideas from different philosophers intertwined with our government today. All of these new ideas and concepts are challenging my original perspective on our current government, and I actually find myself questioning whether or our countries leaders are making the best decisions, and what we can do to "Make America Great Again", a famous slogan of our current president

He focused on equality, and on the idea of loving each other. As stated on page 29, "...Our natural inclination is to love our fellow-men." Cicero believed that the most effective government would be accomplished if we all accepted the idea that we were equal. If everyone abided to this concept, he thought we'd all live a pretty great life. Cicero also knew that the quality of our lives was fully reliant on the quality of our government. Which supports his doubtfulness of a popular government, that is over-ruling on the people in the community. Cicero also favored term limits so that no one person was in charge for a substantial long period of time. He feared that with a dominant ruler, that they may become over bearing, taking advantage of the system to benefit themselves rather than the people within the community. Cicero had many ideas that are commonly found in governments all over the globe. His contribution of ideas has helped the human race improve their methods of government

While reading about Epicurus it's easy to tell he's a realist. The blunt statements made by Epicurus make him trustworthy and relatable, this also makes his ideas interesting to me. For example, on page 169 he makes an obvious quote stating, "once born make haste to pass the gates of death." His ideas were all relatively clear and understandable except for an idea proposed on page 168 where it claims, "...death is deprivation of sensation." I personally have never viewed death from this perspective. I've always believed in the idea that our soul goes on to another spectrum of life in Heaven or in Hell. I never once considered the concept of maintaining or loosing feeling after death. This idea was really eye opening to me and proposed many new ideas. He also mentions how pain is temporary, which is a concept I have way too much experience with. Whether it be the loss of a loved one, or a regretted decision, pain is temporary. He also mentions how we attempt to numb sensation, and ignore our problems, when it's in sober reasoning where we find the answers we're in search of. It was rather difficult for me to determine Epicurus's contributions to Western Civilization besides his Principle Doctrines. Epicurus's ideas were all significant, but his perspectives of government were