Why Don 't We Complain By William F. Buckley

In “The Death of Honesty,” William Damon raises the concern that current apathy towards increasing dishonesty threatens democracy. In this essay taken from the online volume “Endangered Virtues ” published by the Hoover Institute in 2012, Damon initially concedes that there are situations where lying could be considered acceptable. However, with that being acknowledged, he transitions to his main premise that honesty is losing its importance in society and will lead to its downfall, and he cites examples in politics, law, journalism, and business in contemporary society where dishonesty is expected, and even, condoned. Damon finally directs his remarks pointedly at teachers and current students who accept cheating in schools. To persuade

In Thoreau’s continuing effort to describe the context for citizen rebellion, he beseeches how irrelevant public opinion is if it is not acted on. “How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved?” (Thoreau). This question develops a sense of urgency that unless an opinion is acted on, first, there will be a complete absence of realistic results, but second, it simply exacerbates the issue that citizen opinion is against. To an extent, opinions are worthless if there is no motivation behind them, and Thoreau makes this very clear within his essay to assist the exigence behind his straightforward tone.

In Buckley 's essay, "Why Don’t We Complain," he writes about his observations and experiences regarding complaining. He argues

Sissela Bok’s Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life focuses around the ethical implications around lying and examines situations when it is appropriate or inappropriate to lie. Bok’s philosophy is unique among many philosophers in that she takes an approach that recognizes that people will lie and that there are certain situations in which lying may be warranted or acceptable depending on the situation at hand and who is responsible for lying. I believe that this is a more realistic expectation of human society. In this paper, I will examine Bok’s reasoning and apply it to possible situations in my professional career that will require me to examine my ethical responsibility around lying. In addition to Bok’s book, I

The third reason why I agree with Buckley’s ideas about assertiveness and helplessness is shown through as Buckley states that the government is taking rights away from the people. He states, “Every year, whether the Republican or the Democratic Party is in office, more and more power drains away from the individual to feed vast reservoirs in far-off places; and we have less and less say about the shape of events which shape our future”. He also says that we accept the government’s power to hold upon us”. The government is responsible for the great number of American deaths in Korea and is now responsible for billions of tax dollars spent every year. However,

America’s first president George Washington once argued at the [whenever he said this] that “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” It is an essential component to the daily life of any constitutional republic, such as that of the United States even though it is a right granted to all American citizens, in the past, freedom of speech has been abridged to accommodate political correctness, to prevent disruptive behavior that could negatively affect others, and to protect confidential military information.

If a person had the option to change the world for the better, would they? If they would, then why is it when a person gets minor inconvenienced by a small problem like not having enough chips for the bean dip, they just accept the problem and they do not do anything about it. William F. Buckley Jr. Wrote an essay called, "Why Don't We Complain". Buckley is giving the readers his experience on both the lack of care within the political system and also the apathy people give when it comes to life's minor roadblocks. Society needs to learn that fixing minor problems when given the chance is better than letting a problem grow so much that it starts affecting other people. The audience that this essay is directed to will learn the message of why people should complain, and the purpose the author has to complain.

Anthem, the futuristic novel pinned by Ayn Rand in 1937 gives light to a very scary place and time. This writing expressed her views and beliefs that the United States would be repeating a dark place of its history. Setting the preface where slavery and dictatorship was once more the social norm. As with most forward thinkers their thoughts and ideas are concerned extreme and not given the validity they deserve until future generation look back into the past. History and human behavior always repeats itself.

A. Authors work: Ayn Rand has written many novels, including The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Night of January 16th, The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and her first novel We the Living, Which was written in 1934 and was published in 1936.

America is the land of opportunity and equality. Many people grow up believing this to be absolutely true, but Stephen Marche feels otherwise. He wrote “We Are Not All Created Equal,” arguing his point that opportunities in this country are strictly determined by the fate of ones class in society. Marche starts off making a strong case by mentioning the United States’ third place ranking for the least amount of social mobility. In further attempts to prove his point he outlines how class determines the fate of Americans place in society by comparing it’s rigid divisions to those of the aristocracy in Britain. There is a repeating idea throughout the paper that many people in the upper classes love to assume that the poor should fault themselves for their predicament due to their lack of hard work. Marche knocks that assumption out the park with statistical evidence to back up his claims. Although he made a very convincing argument with facts, he had a host of overgeneralized statements throughout the paper, which ultimately weakened his argument of class being the only determining factor of success in America.

The phrase, “We the people”, holds a lot of meaning to American citizens. As the first three words of the United States Constitution, it signifies a core value intended to act as a unifying factor in America’s democratic society: popular sovereignty. This is the idea of a majority rules, or to put more simply, the one with the most votes wins. The U.S. system of government relies upon the fact that the American people are capable of coming together to make informed decisions about matters that will ultimately better the lives of everyone. Despite this, however, there are certain instances in which a minority group will impose on or have more influence than the majority group. This phenomenon occurs all the time in politics, as politicians tend to regard the predilections of small groups of citizens as opposed to the general populace.

As human beings we strive for more. The ultimate goal is to live a luxurious life and accomplish the goals we set out for ourselves. Sometimes a person has to be grateful for what they have, and just allow faith to run its course. There is a saying in my country, “if you have everything you want in life, and everything goes your way, you will die”. What I mean by this is, once a person as accomplished all their life goals, there is nothing left in life to fight for. Above all the material wealth one could wish for, the most important thing is respect. In “Why Don’t We Complain” by William F. Buckley JR, Buckley really found the lack of respect and the lack of consideration some people have, for him, intolerable. Compared to “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde, her parents did not contradict any of life’s circumstances, because they couldn’t complain. Complaining would have made the matter worse. Looking at these two essays I realize that complaining about something you feel is unfair is not good, but there are certain complaints which are more serious than others.

William F. Buckley created an essay in 1961 capturing the reluctance of “todays” society to complain about the things that things that are irksome. He divulges his opinion on why Americans are so unwilling to share their opinion on matters that are concerning to them irrespective of how trivial they may seem, or how enlarged the situation may be. Buckley describes several accounts in his essay from the temperature on a train not being the ideal setting, the strains of having to deal with a blurry picture at the movies, and the failures of a waitress to respond to his needs of more milk with his breakfast. He also speaks about having to take an airline attendances word as only script while he waits for the removal of his tray from his lap before continuing his writing, and awaiting a tool at a ski counter to sort out his own adjustments as he watches the worker sit and smoke. Buckley summarizes his experiences to share his opinion on why people, including himself, choose to shy away from the confrontation that is typically brought on by a simple complaint. But what are the true reasons for one’s inability to complain in even the simplest of situations? William F. Buckley argues the answer to his own titled question within his essay being that; one: most people are far too reluctant to create negative attention to themselves; two: people always expect that someone else will speak up; and three: even if one has voiced their concern for a resolve more often than not the resolve is ignored or does not fall in line with the normal flow of things.

“The hero discovers that he has an undescended testicle. The image sticks in the mind. We can see that it is not an unmixed blessing”(Broyard) Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth has many ridiculous situations that the protagonist Alex Portnoy goes through during his rapid telling of his life to his psyche analysis Dr. Spielvogel that we can’t forget right away. As we go take trip through Alex;s Portnoy 's fictional tale describes how a oppressive community environment can leave ever lasting damage to one’s personal psyche.

The Problem We All Live With is a 1964 painting by Norman Rockwell. An iconic image of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, it depicts Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old African-American girl, on her way into an all-white public school in New Orleans on November 14, 1960 during the process of racial desegregation. The little girl in the painting titled “The Problem We All Live With” is walking to school in a white dress, white socks and white shoes. Her hair is parted in neat plaits and she is carrying a book and a ruler. The use of white Rockwell is symbolic of the new found optimism in the US and the hope for the future the girl appears confident and proud, even as she is overshadowed by U.S. marshals in muted gray suits. Because of