John Lydon with Keith and Kent Zimmerman, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs - Essay Example

A matter of choice Introduction Human beings are curious creatures. Their minds analyze the things that surround them, thus, they are the only beings who have enough intellect to question and even doubt their surroundings. In sharing thoughts and ideas, there are special cases when other people will not allow one to speak their thoughts for the sake of a hierarchy—levels of authority regulating as to who should speak or not speak what they think. This hierarchy becomes counterproductive for a mind that is as curious as the ones the human beings have.

Extreme freedom Freedom is something that is very broad and despite it being sought after by a lot of people, freedom is never totally boundless as too much freedom leads to a number of problems. To an extreme, it is something that leads to chaos, especially when it comes to the governing of a country. Too much freedom gives leeway to the freedom to do crimes and the freedom to do what it not right in society. It is something not desirable in a society, all the more a country. A balance of the rules and freedom is needed, not an extreme of freedom nor rules.

In Lydon’s experience, he experienced the latter, which remains undesirable in any living society.Law in its extremes It is saddening to see a world where people are in a certain “web,” similar to the “food webs” in an ecosystem where the autotrophs are limited in choices (“Food Chains”) and every being is categorized accordingly to a level in the web. In a community, there are people in a specific category of the “web” that are especially limited as they cannot speak their minds due the rules of the ranks above them:…If asking questions makes you a troublemaker, then that’s what I became…I would disrupt lessons as much as possible.

I would question everything…. (Lydon and Zimmerman 21)Lydon shows to the readers that he was not ready rest his beast called ‘curiousity.’ He was willing to ask—indulge his inquisitive nature and quench his thirst for knowledge within his classroom. It is shown that for a mind that is as brilliant with the thirst for knowledge, a situation as limiting as not being able to ask questions create a situation where the mind suffers from being unable to gain more knowledge.It is due to these “chains” around the world, that people are deprived of the different thoughts of other people—knowledge that comes from intellectuals that the hierarchy has managed to stop dead on their tracks.

ConclusionPeople speak to relay to others what they think and perceive about a certain aspect in a subject or topic. The freedom of speech, although free, is still limited. It is something not all people can attain as we are not under the same regime or form of government in the countries of the world. But the walls of silence are not enough to seal totally the curiosity and inquisitiveness of a human being. One way or another, it will to seep through the walls of silence and make its way known to people who choose to open their mind to new ideas.

For Lydon, he freely chose not to keep silent his thirst for knowledge and despite being labeled as a trouble maker, he managed to learn from life—on the whole part, live out part of his life without going to the extremes.Works citedKimball, John W. “Food Chain.” Kimball’s Biology Pages. Kimball’s Biology Pages, 23 Apr. 2010. Web. 1 July 2010. .Lydon, Joan, Keith Zimmerman, and Kent Zimmerman. Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. USA: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. Print.