Dissent vs. DisagreementA teenage girl comes home late from a party to find her mother waiting silently in the doorway. The mother points to the clock and asks where the hell her daughter has been all night. The teenager stole out of the room. The mother had to stay put, because it was two hours after curfew and her daughter never called. The punishment was simple: a week without a car. But the teenager stormed through the house, hurling insults at her mother, slamming doors and complaining about how it was all "so unfair". It was then that his father, agitated, arose from his sleep, rushed to his room and raised the dreaded sentence from a week to a month. Daniel J. Boorstin warned against behavior like this in his book The Decline of Radicalism. It describes what dissenting behavior looks like. a “symptom, expression, consequence and cause of all others” and how it differs from civil disagreement. Disagreements show two opinions presented out of logic, producing new ideas and changes. Dissent is spiteful, often arrogant; alienating the minority who use it in an argument. If the teenager had come at h...