The Federalist #10

      "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.
There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.
There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests."

       James Madison is stating that the Faction is a major concern as it can be used to dissent and overpower the control of the government. Factions can be a major threat due to the fact that they are mentioned to be; "A majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion," and what the quote means is that there is more power in the quantity of people because of their common interests, basically a very large unification. Madison even mentions two methods that could be effective against the current situation; one being to eradicate the source of liberty which is important to them. The other is getting all the citizens who are part of the faction to agree and support a common cause that is beneficial to both the government and the people themselves.

      The reason as to why I chose this excerpt from the "Federalist No. 10" article, is because it depicts the power of many citizens working together to create a possible threat to the government. James Madison even stated that they could be a threat to the government due to the fact that they are unified together under certain causes. This makes me curious, because that can somewhat relate to what is happening in our current society, once citizens find a similar liking they will work together to try and spread it around. One of the methods in controlling the factions is to get everyone to agree on a common cause or interests, this can be related to the government trying to get everyone to agree on a certain issue through news on the T.V, radio, and even websites, allowing them to control. It is an interesting paragraph because it can be related to society today.

Trans-National America

    "We are all of foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born, and if distinctions are to be made between us, they should rightly be on some other ground than indigenous. The early colonists came over with motives no less colonial than the later. They did not come to be assimilated in an American melting-pot. They did not come to adopt the culture of the American Indian. They had not the smallest intention of "giving themselves without reservation" to the new country. They came to get freedom to live as they wanted."

    This excerpt from the article by Randolph is supposed to indicate the fact that the previous American melting-pot" idea failed, and that immigrants never really wanted to immerse themselves in American culture, but more likely follow their own culture, and because America gave the opportunity to do so.
It does seem incogitable that many would go far to promise to blend in with American culture, and promise to always support the country, when in reality it is only because they would want to have the freedom to follow and do as they please. It's true that you should look after yourself, and worry about your own future, but you shouldn't forget the country that allowed you to have this freedom. When Randolph compares the situation to that of the colonists he makes a point that everyone came for freedom, but sometimes freedom comes with a cost.

    This passage relates to the truth about what has happened since 1916, and commonly today in society. Freedom, is one of the great aspects of being an American citizen, but not something to take for granted. They have made an oath by becoming a citizen and it is very upsetting to know that they "accept" the promise, when a lot of the time all they really want is access to a better life for themselves, and not for what is surrounding them. A true citizen must support their own country.

Two Faces of Power

"The concept of power remains elusive despite the recent and prolific outpourings of case studies on community power. Its elusiveness is dramatically demonstrated by the regularity of disagreements as to the locus of community power between the sociologists and the political scientists. Sociologically oriented researchers have consistently found the power is highly centralized, while scholars trained in political science have just as regularly concluded that in "their" communities power is widely diffused. Presumably, this explains why the latter group styles itself "pluralist," its counterpart "elitists."

     What this paragraph is trying to encapsulate is the idea that the concept of power is a well-known controversy, yet it is hard to define. The are two groups at hand, one being the "Elitists"who believes that power is centralized, being drawn at one point under the government. While the other group the "Pluralists" believe that power is spread out and controlled by different groups of individuals. Scholars have concluded that the communities that they live in, power is not centralized, but more diffused to the people allowing some sense of "equality."

        The reason as to why I chose this passage, is because the idea that the concept of power can be seen by two different points of views interests me. The fact that two groups see power as either something controlled under one government, or another saying the power is controlled by the people is astounding. This introductory passage just really stands out to me as it introduces a very interesting topic about power and its two faces.