To A Place in the Sun (from an OK place)

As per our discussion in class on Friday, I full-heartedly disagree with the view that the purpose of Wilhelm II's A Place in the Sun speech was to attempt and dissatisfy Germans with their homeland, but rather to show them that simply as a nation they must be expanding their influence in the world instead of isolating it in the fatherland.

While at first this might seem like a superfluos point of the speech, whichever of these two view turns true changes the entire scope and focus of the German people. If Wilhelm was infact decrying German homeland as meager and weak and that it must be supplemented by additional land/culture, his speech would be percieved in a critical tone, but if he was glorifying the idea of the ever-expanding nation, it'd be considered a bolstering and proactive one. "For when the German has once learned to direct his glance upon what is distant and great, the pettiness which surrounds him in daily life on all sides will disappear." There is no direct comparison saying: look here, they are better, let us emulate them. There is a overarching, idealistic stone when he says "learned to direct his glance." This implies that he's asking for more of a lifestyle change than he is specifically critizing how Germany was progressing.

Both would point to the same end-goal, but Wilhem's manner of approach is far superior in that it's rallying as compared to demoralizing.