Why Don’t We Complain?

The first sentence of the opening statement reads, “William F. Buckley Jr. is one of the leading voices of conservative politics.” I immediately assumed that his words would be that of a ultra conservative Republican. It wasn’t until I had finished reading his anecdote about the 85 degree train about which nobody complained that I realized; the article doesn’t concern any specific political party. Americans in general are guilty of tending toward passive compliance. We endure so many things, all the way from a movie being out of focus to the rulers of our country violating constitutional and common law, often to avoid confrontation with authority.

William Buckley Jr.’s writing style appears very simple and basic. Upon further scrutiny, Why Don’t We Complain is jam packed with rhetorical devices aiming to support his theory and opinion of Americans. His main attempt to communicate with the audience is through ethos, convincing by the character of the author, and pathos, persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. This is done by sharing anecdotes that are relatable to the reader. That way, they get a feel for Buckley’s character and he becomes more personable.

In many instances the author utilized asyndeton, lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words, for a variety of reasons. On certain occasions, the author used this strategy to propose diversity of why different people may have similar feelings . Pg 66 “And the reason no one did is because we are all increasingly anxious in America to be unobtrusive, we are reluctant to make our voices heard, hesitant about claiming our rights; we are afraid that our cause in unjust, or that if it is not unjust, that it is ambiguous; or if not even that, that it is too trivial to justify the horrors of a confrontation with Authority…” This use of asyndeton also reads nervously, just as Buckley proposes Americans feel about confronting authority. Another approach that involves asyndeton is to emphasize something specific by listing. Pg. 69 “When Premier Khrushchev first came to this country late in 1959 he was primed, we are informed, to experience the bitter resentment of the American people against his tyranny, against his persecutions, against the movement which is responsible for the then great number of American deaths in Korea, for billions in taxes every year; and for life everlasting on the brink of disasters…” In this case Buckley makes the reader anxious and frightened through his skill with asyndeton.

Aposiopesis, when the speaker comes to an abrupt halt, seemingly overcome by passion (fear, excitement, etc.) or modesty, is introduced when Mr. Buckley runs out of paper. He is writing while he is on an airplane and is out of space. Due to the circumstances, he is unable to get more paper from his briefcase and has to wait to continue writing. I think this is a clever way to interpret pathos into his writing. The fact that he is just a normal person with normal problems helps his readers relate. Most people, having been there and done that, can connect to him on some level.

After discovering that William F. Buckley Jr. wasn’t advocating a right or left wing agenda in this piece, I found that his use of ethos, pathos, asyndeton and aposiopesis were extremely effective literary strategies to lure me into agreement with his contentions.