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Civil Disobedience Term Papers

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Civil Disobedience With the rise of unjust laws, the question arises, are we required to act and speak out against unjust laws? We should speak out and act against unjust laws to help those affected by the laws that are unable to fight for themselves. Through civil disobedience, laws can be changed and people can earn rights that they previously did not have. When using civil disobedience, nobody is hurt or killed, but laws are still changed, and rights are won. Many have used civil disobedience to change unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his letter from Birmingham Jail, “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts …show more content…

Different laws may take away someone’s ability to fight against unjust laws. Due to some not being able to fight against unjust laws, we are morally responsible to act against unjust laws for them. Civil disobedience is a great way to fight unjust laws because it uses peaceful methods to change unjust laws as opposed to violence. Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey laws when one feels they are unjust without using any kind of violence. Civil disobedience can be boycotting or peacefully protesting something to make change. When a group of people persistently fight against unjust laws using civil disobedience, they can make change happen. Some may argue that we are not obligated to act against unjust laws for many reasons. Someone might believe the law is just, therefore they do not need to act against it. Others might argue that it isn’t their problem, so they shouldn’t have to do anything about it. Acknowledging a law is wrong, but believing that just because the law isn’t your problem, you don’t have to do anything about it doesn’t help anyone. Just because you aren’t affected by a law doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything about it. Anyone can become affected by an unjust law at any time; not everyone can act against unjust laws when they themselves are affected and rely on others to help them. If you were to become affected by an unjust law, you would hope that people would help you in

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All throughout history we have witnessed those exceptional beings whom have taken steps to better our society despite risking their lives and putting the lives of their family members at risk. Peaceful resistance and civil disobedience, as weak as it may sound can just be as powerful as the sword itself. Notably, we are fortunate enough to have had so many notable precedents where acts of peaceful resistance have successfully impacted society and made a mark in history. These remarkable figures have shown that acts of peaceful resistance can be just as significant and positively impacts a free society. Speaking in terms of today’s society, opposing laws that one believes to be unjust seems to be more effective because our citizens are aware

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Letter From Birmingham Jail By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Civil disobedience, as King suggests, serves as a powerful tool for social reform. However, civil disobedience isn't taken lightly. Those defying unjust

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Thoreau And Martin Luther King Comparison

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Civil Disobedience In the dictionary civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest, but Thoreau and Martin Luther King have their own beliefs to civil disobedience. In Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” he writes about the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. Martin Luther King uses civil disobedience as something that effectuates change in the government. Both Thoreau and Martin Luther King has similar yet different perspectives on civil disobedience.

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Civil Disobedience In Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

631 Words | 3 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr once stated, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” in his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963. He was invoking the principle of civil disobedience. He wasn't justifying breaking laws just because, but instead, meant that you break the law and accept your punishment, in hopes that people will come to see that the law is unethical. Civil disobedience plays an important role in how our society has been shaped up until this point.

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Civil Disobedience In Letter From Birmingham Jail

303 Words | 2 Pages

“Anyone in a free a society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law…”(1), Henry David Thoreau wrote. With “civil disobedience” the right of the people sometimes must be exercised by protest, and can be achieved non-violently. We can read this is Thoreau’s writing, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi and Thomas Jefferson. According to our great writers, civil disobedience shows refusing to disobey laws.

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Letters From A Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.

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As Martin Luther King Jr. observes in his "Letters From a Birmingham Jail," it is a sad thing when people condemn the effects of civil disobedience without considering the conditions which festered and led to such a nonviolent protest. As Thoreau writes in his "Civil Disobedience," too much respect for the law can lead people to blindly to terrible things. Consider the Germans who, out of fear of the law, committed the atrocities of the Holocaust; or, the participants of the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures, in which men were instructed to continuously 'shock' a hidden person, and which, goaded on by the authority figure, continued even until the subject of the punishment (in actuality an actor) 'died.' Those who choose to take action to take down laws that do not uphold the morals of the people as a whole work instead towards a society based on considered values that respect all of its

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However, it could also be argued that civil disobedience is beneficial to ridding a society of unjust law. If there is law, you have a duty as a citizen to obey the law or you may try to convince those in charge to change them. If using civil disobedience is a method of convincing others to change unjust law, civil disobedience must be unjust. If it is true that being a citizen of a society binds you to obeying the laws, and civil disobedience is an act which breaks the law, then it is not just for

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Letter From Birmingham Jail, By Martin Luther King Jr.

794 Words | 4 Pages

“One who breaks an unjust law must do so…with a willingness to accept the penalty…to arouse the conscience of the community… [and] is in reality expressing the highest respect for law” (Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963). Civil disobedience is a technique commonly used by many to show their opposition towards a law or a stance. In the legal aspect, the resister disobeys the law they oppose but does not retaliate when faced with consequences. Instead, they understand that it was a result of their actions.

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On Civil Disobedience

799 Words | 4 Pages

Civil Disobedience is an important moral responsibility of a citizen, however it should not get to the level of illegal activity under any circumstances, because great reform can be brought peacefully not violently. In the title named "On Civil Disobedience" by Mohandas K. Ghandi once said: “No country has ever become or will ever become, happy though victory in war”(Mohandas K. Gandhi , 148). Even that long ago, when war was at high, and people embraced it, he knew that the only thing war brought was death, and depression among civilians. This method of civil disobedience has only resulted into more wars, and no real solutions. The most efficient way to the be civilly disobedient is to be peaceful, but willing to stand up for your cause.

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Summary: The Case Against Civil Disobedience

1290 Words | 6 Pages

Herbert J. Storing, an Associate Professor of Political Science, in “The Case Against Civil Disobedience,” writes, “One of the practical consequences of this institution [civil disobedience] is to divert disobedience and even revolution into the channel of law” (97). What Storing is saying is that civil disobedience will encourage people to break the laws and they will hide under civil disobedience to avoid the law. Also, civil disobedience might split society by creating disagreements with the people, and it could create a political instability. However, Storing fails to see that those who break an unjust law, as discussed above, do not avoid the law, in fact they show respect to the law as they willingly accept the consequences. By accepting the consequences, they show that they are not acting for their own interests but for society’s.

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John Rawls Justification Of Civil Disobedience

677 Words | 3 Pages

According to John Rawls, civil disobedience is a public, non-violent, and conscientious act contrary to law usually done with the intent to bring about a change in the policies or laws of the government. A political act in the sense that it is an act justified by moral principles which define a conception of civil society and the public good.” (Rawls, 1992) It refers to a professed and meanwhile an active rejection to comply with demands, commands or laws and legislation of government. Rawls also defines “civil disobedience” with basic features that it is a public, non-violent political act contrary to law usually done with the aim to strive for a change under the laws or policies by the government. Bedau claims that the occasion for civil disobedience arises when people are asked to obey laws or government policies which they consider to be unjust or immoral”.

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How Is Civil Disobedience Effective

1251 Words | 6 Pages

Civil disobedience is nonviolent resistance to a government’s law in seek of change. Civil disobedience is an effective way to bring about change because it is a harmless way of fighting an unjust law or idea, it can educate people about the cause, and it has been successful many times in history. First and foremost, civil disobedience is

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Essay On Civil Disobedience

1360 Words | 6 Pages

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” These astonishing words that Mahatma Gandhi said made me suppose that Civil Disobedience is a Moral Responsibility of a citizen because when breaking certain laws, a citizen perhaps incorporate a good intention or a bad intention for breaking it. Citizens break the law occasionally to have their beliefs be heard so change can be assemble. Some ways that Civil Disobedience can be a Moral Responsibility would be breaking the law for the right intentions. An example of breaking the law for the right intentions could be The Salt March that Gandhi Created or, Rosa Parks standing up for her beliefs about her actions, MLK wanting equal rights with caucasian. Illegal Immigrants coming into the

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