Civil Disobedience Analysis Henry David Thoreau in his essay “Civil Disobedience”, brings up many valid points about the government. The essay might be a little ahead of its time but Henry talks about the injustice of the government and how it wrongfully forces people to do its will. The government has gone passed the line and has been abusing its power. Thoreau expresses in his essay “that government is best which governs least”, and then also goes on to say “that a government is best which governs not at all.” What Thoreau is saying is that the people should be making most of the decisions in society, not a group of men in a position of power. In the American government, and many others alike, there are taxes you must pay.
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a prime example of what happens when government tries to “control man” and make a, in the government’s opinion, utopian society. Throughout the progression of “Harrison Bergeron,” one can see that trying to achieve total equality by any means is not the ideal way to attain a utopian society. Although the members of the public, for the most part, went along with what was happening it was primarily do to the handicaps that they were forced to wear. In the story the handicapper general Diana Moon-Glampers, a representation of a president or authority figure, is the main enforcer behind everyone wearing handicaps. The handicaps include chains for those who are gifted athletically, masks for those who are beautiful, and earpieces for those who are intellectually above average.
Locke stands firm in the belief that people can incite a revolution against their government when it begins to work against what is in the best interest of the populace (Locke, p. 112). He places limits on these actions - such as what a conqueror is entitled to and what would justify as tyrannical behavior - but still justifies the right to instigate a shift political power. On the other hand, Hobbes finds private discourse against one’s sovereign to a disease (p. 197). He finds contempt in the populace under the sovereign, noting that most of were incapable of understanding the inner mechanisms powering the sovereign (p. 207). By deeming the collective population incompetent and likening their anti-governmental chatter to a plague, it is not a reach to assume Hobbes would not prescribe a right to revolution.
However, the opposing side was strongly worried that the United States government was going to have a loss of power. The opposing side had a goal to make the debate drug out as long as possible, by having long speeches about how the Bill angered them. Barry Goldwater stated that he believed that the United States government should not get involved in the employment area because there is “no constitutional basis for the exercise of federal regulatory.” Also stated in this selection Senator Sam Ervin says that it would ruin the relationships with the state and the federal government. Last but not least Senator John Stennis pointed out mainly that citizens should be able to their own businesses or property as that wished upon. (Source 6) Filibusters was another main event that took part in of the passing of the bill.
There were two incidents of ad hominem that I found in the speech. Kane refered to Gettys as “the evil domination” and “the downright villiany.” Rhetorical devices try to draw an emotional response from the reader or listener. The rhetorical devices I found in this speech included: Alliteration, hyperbole, and euphemism. Alliteration is described as the same consonant sound repeated in a number of words in a sentence. One instance that this was used is occurs when Kane stated “the working man and the slum child know they can expect my best efforts in their interests.
He only uses authoritative language towards the end, shifting the focus towards politics through citing statistics - “fallen by $4000… $716 billion cut”. Though the speech attempts to argue a single perspective, there is conflict, as he needs to contend that he is both a family man susceptible to sentiment and a leader that can rise above personal concerns. His overtly personal approach, peppered with political details is an inherent contradiction in the political speech form. The audience response texts are left open to generate conflicting perspectives from various contexts. JC is an allegory for the politics in Shakespeare’s context and the lack of a clearly
We see this now when a politician will amend his opponent, even though he has devastated him just previously, this is ethos. “Who is here so vile that will not love his country?” he asks. Who would say no? When our politicians began passing legislation after 9/11, a repeated strategy was to say that anyone who questioned the legislation was not patriotic, which is very similar to Brutus’s tactics, this is logos. This is how and why I believe Brutus delivered the more effective speech.
The handicap apparatus that some people carry is a metaphor for the disproportionate tax code, welfare, or set-aside programs found in the U.S. today. Kurt Vonnegut views these programs as the infrastructure of a socialist system. The Handicapper General penalizes people because of a perceived advantage. The narrator describes the handicap assigned to Harrison’s father: “While his intelligence was way above normal, George had a little mental handicap radio in his ear that will send out a sharp noise so that people like him do not take unfair advantage of their brains” (216). Handicapping George might be similar to a successful businessman in 2011 being charged a higher tax rate so as not to take unfair advantage of his growing capital reserves.
In the era of post truth politics, voters are seriously misinformed, and will severely impede the accountability of governments. Supposedly, voters cast their vote based on facts and figures. For instance, GDP and unemployment can keep the voters informed about the economic performance of their country, but in post truth politics, a politician can just say the data is manipulated by their opponents (even if it is not), claiming that there is economic growth when there is actually a stagnation or vice versa. In such case, the voters are unable to monitor the government and the government will eventually hold little or no accountability because they can just tell a lie to shift the
The politicians begin to pass laws that tax the capitalists in order to meet their spending promises. Next, a reactionary political party was formed by the wealthy in order to resist the taxes. After a while, the poor became frustrated with all of the disorder and selected a “champion of the people” who eventually acquired absolute power and corrupted by it to become a tyrant who would disregard all aspects of freedom in order to fulfill his individual desires. Plato/Socrates made a valid point as to why democracy is clearly