Why Don 't We Complain

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

Prominent conservative writer and founder of the National Review Magazine, William F. Buckley Jr, in his argumentative essay, “Why Don’t We Complain?” suggests that Americans are extremely passive when it comes to confronting conflicts for fear of causing a bigger affair. Buckley supports his claim by first using colloquial diction, then sarcasm, and finally hyperbole. Buckley’s purpose is to familiarize the passivity of Americans and draw extremes from these actions in order to show his distaste towards the growing phenomena of an unassertive, compliant American society and its repercussions. He adopts an ironic and informal tone for inactive members of society who let more than just everyday occurrences go with no words spoken in objection.

In the essay “Why Don’t We Complain?” written by William F. Buckley, he speaks about the fact that America appears to be losing its voice more and more every year. Citizens have become complacent and conformists as the years go by. Instead of attacking his readers and in attempt to appeal to his ethos, Buckley also accuses himself for not speaking up when a situation warrants it. Buckley claims that Americans have become, “...unobtrusive...afraid to make our voices heard, hesitant about claiming our rights; we are afraid that our cause is unjust… or ambiguous...” (Buckley 99) He goes on to tell his readers that it is probably just the simple fact of fearing confrontation. Although this paper was written in 1925, the problem Buckley addresses is still applicable to today’s society. His whole purpose of writing to his audience is the

Politics is a dangerous topic: minefields to the left and right, shrapnel everywhere, and often the best opinion is no opinion. Dave Barry in “Now That’s It’s All Over, Let’s Eat!” approaches the modern American political apathy with a cynical eye. In 2012, before the second election of Barak Obama, Americans were feeling a lack of faith in the political system. The Democrats were demonizing Mitt Romney and the Republicans were bad-mouthing Obama. Barry says that the American response to all this drama should be to go watch football.

Martin Diamond and James Madison would agree with David Truman’s take on interest groups in government affairs. Martin Diamond believed that “to be scientific political science should focus on facts and not value” (Presentation: Human Nature, Politics, and Groups). This evidence proves that Martin would support Truman’s take on interest groups, because Martin is implying that as long as the interest groups are so called “balancing” government by their existence, then they should be accepted, despite if they lack values and moral integrity. Martin follows Aristotle’s belief that “man is a political animal” (Presentation: Human Nature, Politics, and Groups). This information provides evidence that if Martin accepts Aristotle’s belief that “man

Some contend that our administration is set up so "mobs and tumults are pointless. Be that as it may, in Wisconsin in 2011, Governor Walker uprooted the educator union's entitlement to aggregate dealing. This verging on authoritarian control incited substantial challenges since some felt this was something "to render them vomited". Henry David Thoreau recommended in his article, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, that there is a period and spot to challenge the administration. Be that as it may, testing the legislature in this way wouldn't be fundamental in Paine's visionary

There is an understood social order and staying in one’s place retains balance and order in a community or even a country. The leaders at the top are recognized to be equipped with great minds, worthy of the peoples trust, and strong enough to make the unpopular decisions. These substantial men in all their glory sit atop a mountain out of reach to the common man. Never would we encounter them misusing their power for personal gain or to act under the confines of tradition that no longer serve society justly. In the crucible the Puritans of Salem trust their divinely appointed ministers to sweep away the evil among them. The devout and loyal colonists wouldn’t expect the guardian ministers to become the very evil they were set upon crushing. In the case that the conductor stumbles off their intended path this error may be caught when it is too late. The train is gaining speed consuming more and more fuel and amassing raw power. One cannot stop the train to question its new and controversial path. In Good Night and Good Luck nuclear warfare could become reality at any moment. America’s worst fear and most hated enemy is the communist. Junior senator McCarthy takes this opportunity to be the gallant defender of The Union. Common sense says anyone engaging in criticizing him must be a communist and an enemy of the state. Contrary to this type of defense logic is the possibility the procommunist critic is actually the voice of reason and truth that America desperately needs to

"Today the question of individual choice -- the quest to succeed or fail on your own -- has almost been obliterated by politicians and judges who don't respect the concept of competition and the struggle to prosper" declares political pundit Bill O’Reilly. In his April 18, 2016 Talking Points memo, "The Big Lie of the Presidential Campaign", O’Reilly discusses how politicians have sold the American public an increasingly grand and unrealistic vision of a world where individual motivation and achievement have been supplanted by all-encompassing entitlements provided by an ever-growing nanny state. In this memo, O’Reilly details his views on how political candidates and "smear merchants" pander to the public solely in order to garner

We don’t complain enough. Is the simply and unique argument that Buckley is presenting in his essay. The purpose of this essay is to convince Americans that it’s time to start complaining. Instead of simply pushing aside the issues that are present to us on a daily bases Buckley wants us to confront them head on and to simply speak up. Instead of dealing with hot trains, an unfocused movie screen and long line that is caused from a supposedly lazy worker, we should speak up because we have the power to change the little problems. Buckley is afraid that if we continue to show apathy towards small problems then we will continue this

However, the youth can provide insight on many issues and concern, but they have no voice and no representation. The Young Americans must stand up for themselves, just as the generations did before us. Let us face it, “taxation without representation” is alive and well in the 21st Century. The only way to be heard is to stand up for the right to have a

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.

This contrast between the people’s apparent outrage and their actual lack of action

In the United States, the popular appeal of freedom, citizen action, and political diversity is a common theme in the media, yet many Americans do not seem to actively pursue their political interests as a way of life. Culturally, the expectations of freedom and democracy are common in American politics, but an underlying lack of motivation to follow these principles is more commonplace in the culture of American political activity. In this type of political culture, a study was conducted to find out the various levels of voter participation in political election, which provided a dismal rate of voter turnout: “A 2012 study found that the US ranked “120th of the 169 countries for which data exists on voter turnout, falling between the Dominican Republic and Benin” (Holland para.1). This data suggests that Americans do not follow through on the dictates of democratic participation, which have created a political culture of apathy in terms of global ratings. This is one aspect of the voting problem with American political apathy, which suggests different motives for understanding why so many people in America do not vote or take politics seriously as a way of life. These are important aspects of the general apathy of the U.S. in terms of an international evaluation of political apathy, which places the U.S. at the bottom of the list of the most political active nations in the world.

How self-sufficiency is natural is not something the man seems to want to delve into. The analysis of politics as something natural however seems to clash with his idea that the legislator is a craftsman of the law.  If politics is indeed a craft and of the domain of technique, then how is it natural?

According to Campbell et al. (1980), “the immediate cause of failure to vote may be a low motivational state readily linked to general indifference toward political matters” (p. 26). In addition, Mycoff et al. (2009), stated that “political interest (Brady, Verba, and Schlozman 1995) is a strong and consistent force behind the decision to vote which supports earlier claims from Campbell et al. (1980) who wrote that “the stronger the individual’s psychological involvement in political matters the more likely they are to participate in politics by voting” (p. 121).