Writing Feedback / Questioning Authority: Agree or Disagree (GRE Issue Essay) [11]

The well-being of a society is enhanced when many of its people question authority. Write a response, in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your positions.

"Question Authority," the ubiquitous bumper sticker in late seventies suggested to question every existing authority which could be parents, employers or as big as the government. This aberration is still relevant and practicable today, despite the wide agreement that authority; refers to the government institutions in this essay; have an obvious intent of fostering society's well-being, residents' continued watchdog mentality contributes to enhance conditions of their social surroundings. In other words, peoples supporting good ideas of authorities and rejecting or helping to amend unfruitful agendas are conducive to ideal society.

First, government authorities are bigger in scale and often complex in composition compared to individual or community. Besides their own intricacy, they have to focus for larger areas. This might prohibit the institutions from focusing on small problems of any particular area, which could be "huge" for the residents but nominal for authority compared to big problems in other areas. They might divert the resources into considerably higher important area. Such indifference on small problems might transform it into chronic and incurable.

As it is known, "Prevention is better than cure," people should question authorities before a small ameliorable problem turn into unceasing or needs more money to contain. For example, Japanese government said that, Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by the devastating tsunami was because of Japanese peoples' reluctance in questioning authority.

Second, while authorities are often elected through the majority of votes, the susceptibility of favoring their supporters' neighborhoods or their voting blocks and paying little or no attention to the rival or opponents areas cannot be negated. Such partialities attribute to unequal dissemination of services, physical infrastructure, or natural resources. Local residents' delegation or media coverage helps to avoid such circumstances. We learn some issues only after questioning authority.Informations sometime designated as "classified" by authorities come out after harrying government . This helps to keep government honest and stop unethical practice, if not at least lessens.

Opponents of this idea argue that questioning the authority might jeopardize sensitive issues like religious harmony, foster rebellion and create chaos and unrest. Such sentiments are undeniable but great social changes have always come only after questioning the authority. Whether it is Dr Martin Luther King; Mahatma Gandhi; or Libyan people, their collective questioning conduced to the great social change.

Thus, to conclude, "it is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority," as suggested by Benjamin Franklin but keeping it peaceful, modest and inoffensive because "too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought," as stated by John F Kennedy, must be our utmost attention.

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