"Cheerful Robots"

C. Wright Mills strongly disagrees with David E. Lilienthal that freedom and democracy are both equivalent to the right to choose whatever one wants to buy. To Mills, freedom is more than “the chance to do as one pleases” (212). But to many Americans, Lilienthal’s definition of freedom suited and still suits most Americans. Most Americans are more concerned with what they want to buy than whom they want to vote for and why. The term “Cheerful Robots” seems to fit most Americans perfectly. Americans enjoy the complacency of having unlimited amounts of anything they want. The technology of American products is generally considered very advanced, but many dismiss the advancement of the human mind and its infinite abilities. Life Magazine stated that freedom was in danger from disuse. This can also be said of the rampant apathy and materialism of today. People are not truly free when they are tied to material possessions. Technology and materialism often isolates people. T.S. Eliot stated “Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome”.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Former President Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and rampant anticommunism were two things that inspired the concept of universal human rights after World War II. In 1948, a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt introduced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the United Nations General Assembly. It included rights almost synonymous with FDR’s Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, protection against arbitrary government, and social and economic entitlements. There was no driving force to enforce these principles, but they soon became widely held concepts of freedom.

While these principles were common ideas, they were not always carried out. Many people saw social and economic entitlements as a form of much-hated socialism. Americans enjoyed demonstrating the freedom within their boundaries, but in reality, everyone faced overwhelming restrictions. In 1950, the McCarran Internal Security Act was passed, barring totalitarians (citizens of the Soviet Union) from entering the United States. Truman’s civil rights program was never approved by Congress. Senator McCarthy began a rampant crusade against “communists”, most of whom were simply people with ideas considered radical by conservatives. HUAC, the American Legion, National Association of Manufacturers, and Daughters of the American Revolution persecuted individuals for their beliefs. The McCarran Internal Security Bill required people with unpopular beliefs to register with the government, allowed for the denial of passports, and authorized incarceration or deportation on presidential order.