The Importance of Criticism in America

America has many baseline beliefs that are heavily ingrained in our society. The idea of social mobility in the American Dream, the constant striving for equality of opportunity, and what’s most important to me: the lenses of cynicism that we see the government with. I believe that we as Americans wish for what we think is in the country’s best interests. My American Creed is the idea that being critical of the country is necessary for its benefit.

Change is driven from discontent. Real substantive change is derived from people in a community deciding to face an issue that plagues them. Then, being critical of what the government is doing(or their lack of action) in respect to that issue. For example, in the 20th century the nation was plagued with segregationist legislation that oppressed nonwhites. Naturally, this led to great discontent and resulted with the Civil Rights movement. In this case the people leading the charge of the civil rights movement, SNCC, SCLC were being critical of the government, both locally and nationally, and their protection of the status-quo. Looking through this critical lens, they were able to take action and pursue change through protests like the March on Washington and other group efforts like the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The people living under this oppression were able to then openly criticize the government's they were living under and then derive the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from it. Thus, the criticism of the government that came from the Civil Rights Movement led to the government’s betterment.

The First Amendment is all about freedom of expression. The founding fathers wanted to protect this ability to express their thoughts. The fathers themselves were critical of the British rule that they were under. For example, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was a pamphlet that American colonial patriots used to express their belief that Britain should no longer govern America. This illustrates a central point of my Creed: that this nation is based on being critical of the government that surrounds us for our own betterment. The First Amendment was created to be critical of the government and the world that surrounds us. Then through this voicing of dissatisfaction we can achieve what we see as betterment within our society, and thus being critical of the country is necessary for its betterment.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.” Not only is criticism necessary, I believe that it is the highest level of participation that a citizen can offer to their government. To criticize one’s government is to have a vision for its betterment. To criticize is to believe that we can do better and that improvement is attainable. To criticize is to be American. My American Creed is that criticizing the government and society we live in is imperative for its advancement.