The American RebelRejecting authority is in fact a part of the American Experience and has always been a part of the American Experience. The spirit of rebellion completes the American experience and brings it to life. Americans have been rebelling since the start of the 13 colonies and we have not stopped since then. America was formed by a group of rebels. America is the result of a rebellion. Rules written in law and “standards” made by society were made to be broken and are constantly being rebelled against. The true American is one with a flicker of rebellion in their eyes and a mind infested with the desire for what they believe in. The true American is the person who is willing to live outside the limits of society.
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"On The Duty of Civil Disobedience", Henry David Thoreau (Excerpts)"Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. . . All men recognize the right of revolution; that is,the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. . . At any rate, it isa great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army . . . If the injustice is part of the necessary friction ofthe machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law"
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Henry David Thoreau claims that justice needs injustice and there is no justice without injustice. He says, “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth, - certainly the machine will wear out” (Thoreau 4). This implies the government needs injustice to function. Thoreau makes his claim using logos in a step by step format. He writes, “if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law,” (Thoreau 4). Thoreau argues you should always break the law instead of supporting another injustice. He argues that as citizens of this country it is not only our right, but our duty to rebel and “we should be men first, and subjects afterward” (Thoreau 1). Thoreau says the government acts as a machine and “is at best but an expedient” (1) He asserts that the government is merely a machine which requires individuals to rebel when the machine is unjust.
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The idea of our society being a machine is also seen in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.
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