William F. Buckley, Jr. Essay - 1149 Words

William F. Buckley, JR. â€Å"Why Don’t we complain† first appeared in Esquire in 1961. In this essay Buckley aims to convince his readers that America is too lazy to even mention their own predicaments. He then goes on to explain Americans passive acceptance of circumstances. In doing this he uses several anecdotes based on his past, using careful diction and to keep his audience engaged he sprinkles in rhetorical questions. Buckley opens his essay with a personal anecdote describing the acceptance of â€Å"whatsoever† he realizes that outside it was below freezing temperature and in the train it was 85 degrees. Buckley explains how the train conductor went back and forth through the aisle and not a single person moaned. There were ample amounts†¦show more content†¦Shortly after capturing the readers interest with the introductory anecdote, He uses another anecdote to show Americans passive acceptance of circumstances. In the following anecdote he is at a movie theater and the movie is out of focus and he turns to his wife and she tells him to wait a m inute it will be alright in a minute. It never becomes focus and it is blurry. He then assumes a list of what could happen: a) someone who works there see the blur and fix it; or b) someone seated at the top next to the movie workers make a complaint; or c) the whole movie would explode and people into catcalls and foot stamping, calling dramatic attention to the irksome distortion. In this process he waited and waited until the movie was done. The viewers didn’t complain they accepted the blur and accustomed their eyes to it. He goes on to say that everyone thought someone was going to take the initiative to complain to the manager. He then gives us an example why this happen he says that â€Å"the reason this happen is because we are all increasingly anxious in America to be unobtrusive, we are reluctant to make our voice heard, hesitant about claiming our rights; afraid to cause unjust, that it is ambiguous†. In this statement we couldShow MoreRelatedWhy Don’ t We Complain? by William F. Buckley Jr.977 Words   |  4 PagesAmerica’s Distaste for Complaining In William F. Buckley Jr.’s â€Å"Why Don’t We Complain?† he discusses the apathy that saturates modern society and the weakening effect it has on the collective determination to fairness. Drawing from personal experience, Buckley observes how Americans would rather tolerate the negligent inconveniences of the service industry, than express even the most tactful grievance. He claims this is largely due to the growing apathy toward political and social issues. With theRead MoreWhy Don t We Complain By William F. Buckley Jr967 Words   |  4 PagesWhat 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 â€Å"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 â€Å"The Fourth of July† by Audre Lorde, her parents did not contradict any of life’s circumstances, because they couldn’t complainRead MoreMy Rhetorical Analysis: Why Dont We Complain? Essay967 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Why Don’t We Complain?†, published in the 1960’s by William F. Buckley Jr., an educated editor, writer and television host, is an attempt to persuade his audience that they are reluctant and hesitant about speaking up when faced with circumstances that demand our attention. 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Most people, though, know that there is a time and a place to complain, that its appropriateness and efficacy depend on the circumstances. William F. Buckley Jr., in his essay  Why Don t We Complain?, discusses what he perceives as a failure of people to recognize things they can or should complain about, and tries to tie that deficit to the lack of participation in the American political process.Read MoreEssay Smoking Should NOT Be Banned in Public Places730 Words   |  3 Pagesnonsmokers (Bork 28). The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that living w ith a smoker increases your chance of lung cancer by 19 percent. What they fail to tell you is that, in contrast, (firsthand) smoking increases your chance 1,000 percent (Buckley). Why is the act of smoking tobacco, which merely injures oneself, so scrutinized and shunned by society, while drinking alcohol, which is by far more deadly to innocent bystanders, is accepted by society and virtually unregulated? (Krauthammer).Read MoreLowering the Legal Drinking Age to 18 Essay748 Words   |  3 PagesStates Government pressured the states to raise the legal drinking age to twenty-one. The government used financial incentives to bribe the states, and As of 1988, every state had raised its legal minimum drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one (Buckley, 174). Today, this is a controversial topic among many eighteen-year-olds, because they have the same responsibilities and privileges as adults, yet people under the age of twenty-one are not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages. Lega lly, eighteen-year-oldsRead MoreAppendix L Com/2201060 Words   |  5 Pagesplagiarism. Identify how you plant to integrate these sources into your rough draft. Source 1 Summary, with direct quotation and in-text citation: | With drugs being an unlawful thing to do it is also violence to the constitution. As William F. Buckley Jr. states, â€Å"It is duty of conservatives to declaim against lost causes when the ancillary results of pursuing them are tens of thousands of innocent victims and a gradual corruption of the machinery of the state.†So basically we are doing thingsRead MoreRight Makes Left. On September 11Th, 1960, The Founding1074 Words   |  5 Pagespolitical groups’ statements came during the height of the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement and perceived government repression. The Sharon Statement came out of the first inaugural meeting of the YAF in the home of conservative author William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley. He and 90 other students gathered there to begin the foundations of a national conservative youth organization. On the other hand, the SDS had its roots from the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID), a more labor advocatingRead MoreAffermative Action1316 Wo rds   |  6 Pagesbelieve that affirmative action is a form of reverse discrimination. In contrast, the first goal of Affirmative Action was to help people who were poor or badly educated, elevating them to positions for which they were not objectively qualified (Buckley 95). Cousens, author of Public Civil Rights Agencies and Fair Employment indicates that the Affirmative Action techniques have the advantage of not only persuading employers not to discriminate when hiring or accepting, but to expand employment and