<p>Question from the Blue Book Second Edition:</p>
<p>"Sometimes it is necessary to challenge what people in authority claim to be true. Although some respect for authority is, no doubt, necessary in order for any group or organization to function, questioning the people in charge-even if they are experts or leaders in their fields-makes us better thinkers. It forces all concerned to defend old ideas and decisions and to consider new ones. Sometimes it can even correct old errors in thought and put an end to wrong actions."</p>
<p>Assignment: Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authority? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>(Before you read the essay, please try to remain as objective as possible and keep your political views to yourself!</p>
<p>I know many of us here have chinese ancestry, I do too... So don't get offended by my essay.)
Essay:</p>
<p>The right to question the ideas and decisions of a higher authority was established when our founding fathers passed the Bill of Rights. Fundamentally, the First Amendment is the backbone of a democracy, defending the main reason why it is imperative to challenge authority: to avoid the backfire of a dangerous and kleptocratic regime.</p>
<p>The UN Charter and Declaration of Human Rights reflects very much the same ideologies as the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Yet China, one notorious nation holding the power to veto and alter the course of international security, is the perfect example of a nation that failed to question.</p>
<p>Somehow China has managed to exercise its authoritarianism to a brainwashing extreme. The blind patriotism and the nation's refusal to question has resulted in the denial that the Tiananmen massacre ever happened, the refusal to believe that the nation is fueling genocide in Darfur and the acceptance of mass nationwide censorship. The Chinese are aware that their rights are being violated, yet they are simply overcome with a deluded belief that their government is always correct. I have experienced this first person, having lived in China for 8 years, and I was laughed at for questioning the nation's political ethics. "I don't know, and I don't care," was the nation's equivalent of "Hakuna Matata".</p>
<p>On the contrary, Denmark, one of the happiest and politically-satisfied nations in the world exercises a population that questions the government liberally. History has also proven that national (or better yet world-wide) questioning invokes change and bolsters the system of checks and balances. Silence, like that echoed by China, Swaziland and such, only gives a free pass to plutocracy and corruption. A democratic nation, with a democratic mindset should always be skeptical and inquisitive by heart.</p>
<p>(Then I ran out of time...)</p>