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There exists a fine line between the degree of responsibility a government has for its citizens, and the control it assumes to ensure the proliferation of its power. While freedom may be a traditional American value, how it is defined is a question that has long been a source of debate. Furthermore, when an institution follows a course of action that becomes detrimental to society, what responsibility, if any, do the citizens have to show their dissent, and what form should that dissent take?…
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King portrays what would happen if people followed a corrupt leader and allow power to grow uncontrollably; it would result in a tragedy like the Holocaust. In addition, he also acknowledges that, like the Hungarian Freedom Fighters, if you do what you believe is right then you will accomplish a positive improvement in society. Furthermore, Thoreau accentuates the importance of using your moral sense to determine whether the laws you are FOLLOWING follow your values because the first priority is to be a righteous man and then a subject to authority. Miller also contributes to this argument by disciplining his readers to never fear the cost of rebelling against the dominant opinion because that cost is worth the change their rebellion would achieve. The ability of civil disobedience is important to have because it ensures the protection of being manipulated easily by a higher power. If you do have the strength to question authority than your rights will always be…
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What does ‘speaking truth to power’ mean to you? (1st paragraph) Where have you seen it in the ancient sources? (2nd paragraph)…
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The only way to truthfully test authority and the people who submit themselves to it, is in a real life situation. When humans are pushed outside of our comfort zones, it becomes more difficult to feel comfortable and easier to feel the pressure to conform to this authority. Living in the real world, authority has become a major part of society. “Always respect your elders” is something that a majority of children are told time and time…
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A country should always have the ability to lead public opinion and preserve social stability. In today’s world, the United States government still holds certain level of control over media and flow of information- in a more insidious way. Similar to those who doubted “safe for democracy” during World War I, Edward Snowden “has revealed a broken system of our Constitution, and he’s given us the opportunity to get it back, to retrieve our civil liberties, but more than that, to retrieve the separation of powers here on which our democracy depends.” (6)…
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Authority maintains order in our world, and every day we see figures who possess an insightful understanding of the responsibility to hold authority. Shakespeare’s’ play King Lear, and Golding’s novel Lord of the flies, explore the concept of authority to maintain order in society, whilst, representing insight as a necessity of an authoritative figure.…
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An American’s civil liberties are among some of the most important rights awarded to a citizen. After 9/11 some of those liberties were taken away by the expansion of executive power, the National Security Administration or NSA’s domestic surveillance program, and the use of “national security letters” to force information from citizens. Research conducted by Benjamin A. Kleinerman concludes that there are three criteria that must be met in order for a president to expand his executive power. First, it must be justified, or pass the “necessity test”, which means public good is insufficient grounds for discretionary power because “only political necessity and not popular or congressional approval can legitimate any discretionary action taken by a president.” This is to keep constitutional order in-tact (Rajaee). Second, Kleinerman states, “Discretionary action should only take place in extraordinary circumstances and should be understood as extraordinary.” A president should be able to justify their behavior in terms of their constitutional responsibility, which would require a restoration of “the notion of executive prerogative to the sphere of public discourse” (Rajaee). Third, “A line must separate the executive’s personal feeling and his official duty. He should take only those actions that fulfill his official duty and the preservation of the constitution, even…if the people want him to go further.” The Patriot Act for example, is a…
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We are told we have all these rights of freedom. The government should not be trying to mold people and believe certain things. Everyone has the right to know the truth and build a personality of their own. We are a society made up of human beings that have certain desires that differ greatly from one another. It seems as though higher authority is scared of losing their power. But in all reality I believe if you do good and respect others they will do the same in return. To me that is human nature.…
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Throughout the past century there have been multiple incidents breeding distrust and contention between the government and civilians. There was McCarthy communist “witch-hunt ” of the sixties; the series of illegal activities associated with the Watergate scandal, and most recently the illegal the National Security Agencies illegal monitoring of citizens, borough to light by Edward Snowden. “Edward Snowden, Whistler- Blower” by The Editorial Board offers a sympathetic perspective at the noble effort and plight of Edward Snowden who is currently in hiding to avoid criminal charges for exposing the National Security Agency’s unlawful collection of personal information of citizens, including email messages and information about phone calls. The Editorial Board argues that Snowden should not be punished for his actions. Although his actions were illicit by law the article claims “When someone reveals that government officials have deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government.” Despite some who believe that Snowden should be punished for the illegal release I too believe that people who reveal injustices should not face criminal charges if their means in releasing the information resulted in no harm.…
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When obeying authority one can often loose thought of morals and beliefs. In the experiments the men obey the authority figure by doing cruel things they would not usually do. These experiments turn mentally stable men into a person willing to inflict harsh punishments on innocent people while following orders. Night by Elie Wiesel, The Milgram Shock Experiment, and the stanford prison experiment shows how obedience to an authority can cause people to stray from their conscience.…
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“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government,” Thomas Jefferson once said. The government is a precarious, but influential, part in the world today. Many believe that everything the government does should be implemented in order to keep structure in our daily lives. However, bureaucracy is not always right. The government can often prove it can not be credible, plausible, or dependable. For as long as democracy has been in place, people have disagreed with it. Yet, if it were not for these disputes, government would never be anything that it is today. It is appropriate to go against the government if there is a conscience-challenged problem that can be solved civilly.…
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The dilemma inherent in submission to authority is ancient, as old as the story of Abraham, and the question of whether one should obey when commands conflict with conscience has been argued by Plato, dramatized in Antigone, and treated to philosophic analysis in almost every historical epoch. Conservative philosophers argue that the very fabric of society is threatened by disobedience, while humanists stress the primacy of the individual conscience.…
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On September 11th of 2001 the United States was attacked. Many people died and through that drama the United States was unified with a singular goal of stopping terrorism. While many people were willing to sacrifice a few freedoms for the greater good, others were asking where is the line between the government fighting terrorism and abusing a situation to expand its dominion over the public. The United States government passed a bill called the PATRIOT Act to simplify procedures, relax rule sets on prosecution and give the government more jurisdiction into the personal lives of the populace by allowing surveillance techniques like roving wire taps and data mining without provocation or court order. While many officials state that this act is a crucial tool in the war on terror, others argue that it is unconstitutional and taking away the freedoms the government is supposed to protect. This difference in opinion has raised the question of how much privacy should the population be willing to give up to support the war on terror. The PATRIOT Act is walking a dangerous line and it would be irresponsible to accept it without research into the pros and cons, which are not equal. Although the act does have a few benefits, it goes too far over that line by giving the far too much power to the government while taking away too many freedoms.…
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In the society that has formed in my generation and the generations before, people have learned to blindly follow their leaders. Kids follow their parents, adults follow their pastors and politicians. Too often, people are scared to think freely for themselves and to question the authority who guides them, and often what they are told by people in authority or people in the public eye turns out to be lies, humbug, or even bullshit. This argument is made by both Immanual Kant and Harry G. Frankfurt, who both claim that members of society don’t look into what is said often enough, and don’t raise questions. This is seen most commonly in the way American’s blindly follow the words of politicians.…
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Surveillance is presenting numerous challenges to our right to privacy. The National Security Agency or NSA is amassing private information about Americans. (Heuvel par. 3) Emails, phone calls and other forms of communication are being monitored. Unless we the American voters demand of our elected officials that they curtail the unwarranted surveillance by our government on American citizens, the current state of affairs is nothing but a prelude to our Government usurping our liberty of privacy we are likely to descend into a total surveillance state.…
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