Why Don't We Complain

David Richey

Professor Jayne Braman

English 50

6 July 2010

Why Don’t We Complain?

William F. Buckley Jr.

Summary By David Richey

Buckley’s assertion that with the technification of life, we have become helpless automatons, I do not agree, Buckley’s assertions were misplaced and driven by Cold War Fears of that era.

William Frank Buckley Jr. (November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American conservative author and commentator.

Buckley’s assertions our derived from stresses he felt was going on around him , for decades America had been facing the cold war and the reality of Nuclear destruction was stressing the whole country out. , during the time of Buckley’s writing of is essay , “Why don’t we complain”, We had just elected a new President, Kennedy with the promise of new hopes and dreams “The Birth of a New Era”, had been proclaimed , by President Kennedy’s Administration but in April 14,1961 and the fear of Russian nuclear bombs in Cuba we invaded Cuba, “The Bay of Pigs”, where Americans were killed. 1961 was ripe with frustration for Buckley and many.

In this era of the fifties, sixties and seventies , living with the reality of the cold war had made monsters of our politicians case and point; The modern day Salem Witch trials , of 1955 when anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy had presented 250 Peoples names , who he felt were communist in America , these Americans had to go in front of a commission to prove their innocents , and after public scrutiny and their lives being turned upside down in the media , they were proclaimed innocent of all charges , I blame the era of cold war stress on the assumption of Buckley toward the American people, overreacting to a situation can get you into a world of trouble. Given our history, the American people learned to choose its fights.

Moreover to equate, not speaking up in our day to day discomforts intrusions, is only responding to a much deeper stress for Buckley’s...