Communist Manifesto! That's fun to say...Manifesto!

Pros:
1. Equal obligation of all to work. Everyone pitches in and does their part for society. Their is not more burden on one person than another, so no one becomes angered about unfair labor.
2. Every child in public school is entitled to an equal and free education. Children are also taken away from the factory environment and are focused more on their education.
3. Abolition of Bourgeois property. Everyone is at the same place in society and not one person is ahead of the other. Everyone is equal!
4. Centralization of credit in the banks. State has control of everyone's money and makes sure that no one person becomes richer to an unfair extent than the other. Also centralizes government as a whole. All of the state's money is in one place.
Cons:
1. High income taxes. The government is already standardizing everyone's income, taxing people high could cause revolt.
2. Combination of agriculture and manufacturing industries. Too much for one combination. Also two very different areas of production to be grouping together.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. No sense of family values. Money that would be inherited just flows back into the government and this could anger people.
4. Abolition of property and land goes to public service. No one has a sense of ownership or their own land. I feel like if everyone were to own an equal part of land it would be better than having the government own it all.

Leaders in Paintings...what else is new?

One of the main things in these portraits that we observed in class and that I also noticed at home was the presence of scholarly items, such as books, quills, or constitutions. This emphasizes how they were all thought of as educated and intelligent by the people they led and the artists that portrayed them. Also, along with high thoughts of their education, the artists also portrayed the leader's strength and warlike skills using swords in almost all of the paintings with the exception of one. The artists use qualities such as intelligence and education as well as distinct facial expressions to portray these people a certain way. An example of this is George Washington's content and calm nature or Murat's arrogant smile that show their pride of their winnings. By making these leaders look so proud and triumphant the artists have created a picture of what a good leader should look like, making all leaders from then on try to live up their standards. For example, George Washington's look carried on in almost all of his successors. The majority were white, educated, middle aged men. I think that revolutions such as the ones led by these leaders need a strong heroic figure because they take the "rebellion" factor out of the revolution and insert a liberating and justified factor into it. Because these leaders are portrayed as such honorable and heroic figures, I believe the artists are representing the opinions of the people throughout the revolutions that these leaders were apart of.