Dissent

Producer, Mike Nichols provides us with a powerful look into the life of an American nuclear plant worker in the 1983 movie “Silkwood.” Starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher, “Silkwood” depicts the true story of Karen Silkwood, a chemical technician and union activist at Kerr-McGee nuclear facility in Crescent, Oklahoma. Knowing that the plant is three months behind in meeting a contract’s deadline, Silkwood suspects that their work is being compr0mised in order to meet the deadline. Silkwood strives to ensure that she and her co-workers are safe. As an activist, she raised concerns about corporate practices as they relate to quality control and safety procedures that put herself and her coworkers at risk for radioactive contamination. While working at Kerr-McGee, Silkwood was elected to the bargaining committee for the plant’s union. She testified before the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission about unsafe working conditions at her facility. In 1972, Silkwood, a young, divorced mother of three left her children with their father in Texas so that she could work at Kerr-McGee. There she helped make plutonium fuel rods for nuclear reactors. Kerr-McGee was a major firm dealing in inorganic chemicals and petroleum and natural gas exploration and a leader in Oklahoma’s nuclear power industry. (Britannica). Early in the movie, we learn that Silkwood is working with a brown powder comprised on plutonium and uranium oxide. Plutonium, a radioactive chemical element, is…

Mill asserts that there exists a “peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion…, robbing the human race…[and] those who dissent from the [unpopular] opinion, still more than those who hold it.” Mill supports his assertion that silencing one individual is equivalent to silencing mankind itself by exploring the consequences to not only the dissent opinions, but also the prevailing majority beliefs, and ultimately society as a whole. Mills abstractly states that if the dissent opinion…

distinction between disagreement and dissent in a liberal society, arguing that disagreement is essential to the vitality of democracy, while dissent is effectively its cancer. I agree with Boorstin’s distinction as it applies in a historical context because disagreement promoted the rights of the people, while dissent seriously endangered them. However, I do not believe his distinction holds entirely true in contemporary America because the federal government’s protection of people’s rights is…

The first article that is being analyzed is, Attribution Theory in the College Classroom: Examining the Relationship of Student Attributions and Instructional Dissent. The researchers were studying the relationship between student’s attributions of their instructor’s behaviors and their own three forms of dissent: expressive, rhetorical, and vengeful dissent. These three forms of dissent are characterized by the attributions the students’ make about the instructor. Attribution theory explains,…

The national anthem and the patriotism of dissent, a paper written by an author arguing that attempting to raise awareness towards social injustice can be done differently than disrespecting the country and that disrespecting the flag or America is not the way to do it. Through the editorial, this author is ineffective and contradictory in making a point that protesting during the pledge or national anthem is disgraceful. This author contradicts themselves by going back and forth and being…

pursue that truth. Nietzsche believed that this rationality was incorrect and inevitably led to instinct becoming the prevailing driving force. This Nietzsche viewed as problematic and as a hindrance of man’s will to power. Mill’s view on the ancients was more positive than Nietzsche. Mill highlighted the ability that the ancients had to allow eccentric thought leaders who acted contrary to the popular opinion of society. “In ancient history, in the middle ages, and in a diminishing degree…

Daniel M. Wegner’s article titled “How to Think, Say or Do Precisely the Worst Thing for Any Occasion” reveals interesting insights into actions that we see or do on a regular basis. Through his many experiments and examples he answers what a counterintentional error is, how factors such as attention affect our ability to suppress thoughts, whether errors apply to behaviors and emotions rather than just mental or cognitive thoughts, and addresses whether we as humans are good at suppressing our…

Disagreement is to tennis as dissent is to boxing. Disagreement is an idea, whereas dissent is a personal value or belief. Typically, disagreements are less intense than dissension because they are less personal. Disagreements also tend to be amongst equals, both parties share the power, passing ideas back and forth. In a democratic society, people often have disagreements. Opposing politicians may debate over government regulations, or whether Democrats or Republicans are best at keeping the…

In The Future of Illusion, Sigmund Freud discusses his idea that man at its very basic nature has a primordial instinct for pleasure and that nature and fate play a more powerful role. This has created a perception of civilization that he feels is built on two concepts that are knowledge based and rule set by a minority that has destructive anti-social tendencies. This is done for the base of extracting and distributing “wealth” by means of coercion and suppression of this primordial natural…

A dissent is when a judge disagrees with the vote on a case, suggesting that the majority should consider a different outlook. Dissents can be focused on either the outcome or the route to the outcome, calling out and explaining what is unjust or wrong. Someone writing a dissenting opinion may agree with the final decision, but not the reasoning behind it, or believe that the decision is completely wrong. One of the most important dissents in American history was Plessy v. Ferguson, in which:…