Better to Betray My Country and Not My Friend

551 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of making choices essay

We as human beings all have choices. Many of the choices we make can affect us for the rest of our lives. Among the more important decisions a person will ever have to face is that of betrayal. Often times we are in a situation in which we must chose sides: “Whom to betray?”, and in this case, the options are friend or country. I agree with E. M. Forster’s view on personal relations and patriotism, believing that “I hope I should have the guts to betray my country” (Forster) over my friend. A person should always – and one might even say has a duty to – place his conscience or the moral laws he has set for himself over any conflicting manmade law. Many examples throughout history have set precedents for this sort of behavior. Antigone’s burial of her brother Polyneices, when Tim DeChistopher outbid many corporations in a land drilling auction to protest global warming, Martin Luther King’s civil disobedience to end segregation, and the Weather Underground’s violent acts of terror to “bring the war home” were all courageous acts (justified or not) of disloyalty to the federal g...

Show More
Related

  • Civil Disobedience In James Rachels The Elements Of Moral Philosophy

    230 Words  | 1 Pages

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a prime example of this act of disobedience, and said, “The end justifies the means, even though the means are regrettable.” He however did not question the legitimacy of the American government but rather the particular laws that he and others felt were unjust. The civil rights movement was started by Dr. King, in which he found that it would be against

    Read More

  • Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem by Erich Fromm

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    Necessary Rebellion Erich Fromm is a psychoanalyst and sociologist who has written many books and journals over the years. Fromm closely studied other psychologists such as Freud and Marx, and he published analytical works on both many other theories. In his essay, “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” Fromm explains that as humans we start out with disobedience, and make it into something horrible—something for which we must repent, feel sorry for, and act as if we won’t do it again (621). Obedience is thought to be a high moral standard which we are to follow. On the other hand, disobedience is considered a moral flaw, a wrongness, or something you just should not do.

    Read More

  • Loyalty In The Chrysalids

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Loyalty allows people to make sacrifices in order to protect the ones that are deat to them. In the book The Chrysalids written by John Wyndham, there are individuals willing to die for one another just to keep each other safe from the society trying to hunt them down.

    Read More

  • Aldrich Ames Spy Profile Paper

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Phillips, L. (2014, February 16). The Drudgery of Treason. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from http://theintermediateperiod.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/

    Read More

  • The Meaning of “Story-Truth” and “Happening-Truth”

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain ...

    Read More

  • Patriotism as Bad Faith

    343 Words  | 1 Pages

    Simon Keller argues in his essay "Patriotism as Bad Faith" that patriotism is not a virtue but it is actually a vice. Keller begins by splitting the views on this philosophical debate into three different representations. The first being the "communitarian patriot", where patriotism is not only a valued virtue to someone's self but that it is actually an essential virtue. The second representation is a radical contradiction of the first, known as the "hard universalist. The hard Universalist sees patriotism as a vice instead of being any type of positive virtue. They think that everyone should be valued the same, and that there should be no favoritism. The third representation is the idea of the first two combined, to form what is called the "soft universalist." This view is understood as patriotism is allowed, and is not seen as a vice, but also that one has an obligation to the rest of the world, almost to try and treat them as a loyalty that you would have towards your own country. (p.112).

    Read More

  • Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    245 Words  | 1 Pages

    Imagine not wanting to do something, yet complying to what society demands. People are constantly put in these situations with life altering decisions. The concepts of loyalty and pride can ultimately skew one’s decisions in these moments. Whereas, Tim O’Brien is faced with participating in the Vietnam war or escaping to Canada. One decision could kill him and the other leaving him a runner of the draft and incapable of return. In the end, Tim O’Brien chose what could possibly kill him, the war.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience as a Method of Protest

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    People in this world must stand up for what they believe because many people will take advantage of their power and infringe their rights. When Einstein said what he said about civil disobedience that you should trust a person?s conscious and not his government he was telling people to make a stand. A prime example of standing up for what you believe in and not bowing to a law or demand that a person doesn?t think is right would be Sophocles Antigone she didn?t stop trying to bury her brother because she believed it was the right thing and she stood up for herself ?I shall rest, a loved one with him whom I have loved, sinless in my crime, for I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living: ...

    Read More

  • Admiral Jarok as Noble Traitor

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    A traitor is defined as a "person who betrays his or her country, cause, friends, etc. " (Webster)

    Read More

  • 1968 Olympics: Rebellion, Racism, and Repercussions

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    The greatest transformations in American history have come from fearless citizens rebelling against unjust treatment. However, some of America’s greatest downfalls can also be a result of rebellion. When John Carlos and Tommie Smith stood on the podium at the 1968 summer games in Mexico City, they had the intent of raising a black gloved fist in the air during the National Anthem to bring awareness of continuing inequality between races. The men wanted to show U.S. pride by doing so, but instead displayed what many interpreted as a dishonor, ultimately making their rebellion ineffective.

    Read More

  • On Duty Of Civil Disobedience Rhetorical Analysis

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is important to realize that the human voice should be heard whether it is from anger to an appeal of emotions. Looking upon “On Duty Of Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and a “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. we observe how sooner or later humankind will speak up. Although many human beings in society won’t even speak up due to the fact of being intimidated of judgement or of those who lead.

    Read More

  • Susan B Anthony Patriotism

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    While the law is meant to be universal, reformers, activists, and civil rights leaders all testify to its inconsistencies in the long and unending trial of history. Recognizing the distance between the law and morality and attempting to reconcile them requires both a realistic assessment of the current situation and a naïve optimism that, with the sheer force of democracy, it can and will improve. This explains why the most powerful and ironic motivation for civil disobedience is patriotism. Democracy opposes both tyranny and anarchy, and needs civil disobedience to sustain such a contradiction. The difference in personal and legal interpretation of the law is not the same as the difference between the subjective and the objective; instead,

    Read More

  • Nationalism and Democracy

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nationalism has played a crucial role in world history over the past centuries. It continues to do so today. For many, nationalism is indelibly associated with some of the worst aspects of modern history, such as the destructive confidence of the Napoleon’s army and the murderous pride of Nazi Germany. Large numbers of people, descent in their hearts, have carried out unbelievable atrocities for no better reason than their nation required them to. Authoritarian and totalitarian regime have crushed dissent, eliminated opposition, and trampled on civil liberties in the name of the nation.

    Read More

  • Columbine School Shooting Essay

    479 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ultimately, these individuals galvanized to confront these “folk-devils” and denounce their immorality that was believed to threaten the stability of U.S. society. Those opposing the perceived threat of “superpredators” wanted to send a clear message: behavior contradicting those established by the community would not be tolerated and measures would be taken redraw the lines of morality consistent with accepted behaviors within U.S. society. The people that benefited from the

    Read More

  • Paradoxical Analysis Of Dr. Sadao Houck's 'The Enemy'

    1294 Words  | 3 Pages

    Introduction: This paper deals with the paradoxical relationship between national and patriotic values and the very laws of humanity that crop up in some particular contexts/situations such as the one exemplified in the character of Dr. Sadao Hoki in Pearl s Buck’s “The Enemy”.

    Read More

More about Better to Betray My Country and Not My Friend

Open Document