Why Don’t We Complain? by William F. Buckley Jr.

Have you ever felt a rule you had to follow was unjust? Have you ever felt your moral instinct tell you not to follow it? Prominent figures in American history, Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, felt this way and decided to not follow the rules imposed on them by indulging in “civil disobedience”. Civil disobedience is the act of peacefully disobeying laws or customs with the purpose of combating moral injustice. This form of protest has proven to be quite effective in making change in history. In “Civil Disobedience” and the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, both Thoreau and King Jr. write their justification for their actions as well as their feelings regarding the particular disputed

If anyone in the United States were asked, "What is the best part about living in this country?," most people would answer "equality". The United States is built on and known for the equality among its citizens and is often referred to as the 'melting pot'. After reading Jonathan Kozol's, The Shame of the Nation, equality is nonexistent within the schools he has gone to, and has been employed through. With his travels, expert testimony and personal stories gathered from the people within the community and schools, he shows the exact opposite of equality. Minority schools being his main focus, he discusses the inequalities these students endure and truly opens up your eyes to just how awful these minority schools have it. Jonathan Kozol is successful in his writing of The Shame of the Nation, and makes himself a voice for these minority schools that are denied of their voices.

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.

Henry David Thoreau, an American essayist, philosopher, and historian around the 1800s, composed “Civil Disobedience” to uncover the rapid downfall of the American Government. Thoreau highlights “That Government does best when it does not govern at all”; and when the men are most ready for It, that will be the type of Government they will have, a Government-free one (Thoreau 1). Thoreau expresses his bravery in his writing to bear his nationalistic attitude, showing his hostility towards the American Government during that time; he asserts that the Government, in it’s present state is sinister and corrupted because the Government favors slavery and the Mexican war. Throughout his explanations, Thoreau argues that the American citizens should take complete control by being the true leaders of the government and not allow the Government to rescind or decay their consciences. To grab the reader’s attention and to lead them to a new kind of nationalism and it’s circumstance, Thoreau exquisitely makes use of the rhetorical elements of ethos, logos, and pathos.

Were all the American grievances really justified, or were the British actually being more reasonable than most Americans have traditionally believed?

What every American should know by Eric Liu thoroughly examines the issue of cultural literacy and its place in modern America. It takes on a convincing argument against E.D. Hirsch’s book on the same which included some 5000 things that he thought define cultural literacy and every American should know. Liu argues that America has changed over time, becoming more multicultural, and to capture the cultural literacy of the country, no one person should sit down and come up with what they think everyone else should know. Instead he suggests that in order to capture the view of the nation, every American should be involved in the making of the list. The most engaging part of this article is Liu’s idea that this new list that is crowd-sourced should always change according to the times. It should not be cast in stone because things in this day and age change really fast; what is a hit this month will be old news in the next one. This is what cultural literacy really is; keeping up with what is going on around you and being open to learn new things as they emerge. This can also be said of education; in order to stay educated in any field, you have to be in the know of in terms of new developments.

From the start of man fighting for freedom or his beliefs, the question has consistently been whether a person can wage a battle using words rather than actions. The notion of civil disobedience would seem to be an inept weapon against political inequity; history, however, has persistently proven it to be the most dynamic weapon of the individual. By refusing to pay his taxes and subsequently being imprisoned, Henry David Thoreau demonstrated this very defiance. Thoreau’s Resistance to Civil Government conveys the effectiveness of the individual conscience, renounces hypocrisy, and cultivates a sense of urgency where inaction creates a moral conflict. This path of responsibility paved by Thoreau gave our leaders of today the means they

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.

In his expository essay Resistance to Civil Government, Henry Thoreau compares men serving in the armed forces of The United States to wooden statues and he discusses how the government has manipulated and used their men. Throughout the course of Thoreau’s essay, he challenges his reader to look beyond the superficial aspect of their country and address the issues that often go unnoticed. Thoreau dares readers to respond boldly to topics and decisions that they might consider unfair or unjust. Prompted by an instance in which he stood up for a tax that he thought was unjust, Thoreau writes a provoking, almost taunting essay in which he describes some of the abuses that the government has forced on its people.

After spending a night in jail, after nonpayment of Massachusetts poll tax, Thoreau wrote his essay “Civil Disobedience”. He states that governments are mostly “inexpedient” (1577), or not practical. At best, Thoreau pushed the idea that the government isn’t useful because it is not our own. He writes “What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army” (1580). Americans listen to the rules established by the government, but it is not necessary, because the government is just the majority of people with whom are living off a different countries rules. The reason the government is even there, is because it gives the citizens some type of stable structure to live by. Thoreau feels that the government is unjust and the citizens of America should not follow rules. He feels like a reform is in need; “It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong” and “not to give it practically his support” (1582). Thoreau and Emerson both push for social reform of the individual. Emerson wants the individual to be reliant on themselves, and not fall into the conformity of the American society. Thoreau, also teaches the individual to think different then the governmental established rules. Both authors want the readers to trust themselves, before they trust the

Throughout once in your life, you may have been confronted with a situation where you accept inconveniences instead of taking action. According to William F. Buckley, American people everywhere have refrained from “trying to rectify irrational vexations”. In Buckley’s essay, “Why Don’t We Complain?” he explains some situations that he was involved in where no one would complain to repair an uncomfortable situation. Throughout the essay, Buckley uses his experiences and strong reasoning to show why he believes that the American people do not complain. Buckley attempts to support that the apathy that Americans would accept inconveniences instead of taking action is the cause of many Americans’

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.

Civil disobedience is defined as the “refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in government policy or legislation, characterized by nonviolent means”; theories on this topic have been debated for centuries. (American Heritage Dictionary 3rd Edition pg161) Henry David Thoreau was well known for his refusal to participate in the political systems or activities of his era, not only by refusing to pay his poll taxes for six consecutive years, but also by announcing that he did not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau stresses the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. A person should not be obligated to devote his or her life to eliminating evils from the world, but is only obligated not to participate in such evils themselves. He argues that the government rarely proves itself useful and this derives from the power from the majority because they are the strongest group, not because they hold the most legitimate views. Justice is the quality of being just, impartial or fair. Thoreau doubted the effectiveness of reform within the government, and argued that voting and petitioning for change served useless. He felt that justice had different standards for each different group. Which raises the question, is justice fair for everyone? When a government is unjust, people should

Inequality, it is all around us, in our jobs, at our children schools, in our neighborhoods, and no matter how hard we might try to escape it, there if no escape. We used to think that inequality was a thing of the past, but it is still very prevalent in today’s society. Many think “well inequality does not affect me personally, so why should I care?” While it may not affect you personally, it probably affects someone close to you. Throughout his book Toxic Inequality, Thomas Shapiro demonstrates just how surrounded the population is by inequalities with stories about families who are not only financially divided, but racially. These inequalities are rooted so deeply in our society that it can be easy to overlook the problem and ignore it, but as Shapiro demonstrates we can no longer overlook the problem, we need to face it head on it we have any hope of trying to fix it for future generations.

The American duty requires to use voices, symbols, strength, and intelligence to unite and prosper against an unjust authority. Recently, different organizations continue to express their wants and changes to the government through peaceful protests. Civil disobedience strives to develop in America, however improvement continues to happen. The advantageous duty conveys civil disobedience. With Henry David Thoreau’s pivoting piece about individualism and protesting, Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter towards equal rights and rebellion, the developing civil disobedience continues to fulfill the American society.