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Civil Obedience As Depicted In Plato's Dialogue 'Crito'

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In 300 BCE, in Plato’s dialogue “Crito,” which is a conversation between Socrates and Crito, claims that laws should be followed and obeyed. Plato does not use any evidence to back up his claim because the dialogue is more like a monologue. Howard Zinn on the other hand has a completely different view. Zinn gives a speech in 1970, stating that laws should not be obeyed. He states that any society that follows laws will have no justice or leads into a greater amount of chaos. In his speech, “The Problem is Civil Obedience” he selects historic and current examples. For example he uses the Vietnam War, rights and slavery to support his claim. About 100 years later in 1849, Thoreau writes a speech also using an unjust war. Within his essay “Civil …show more content…

Zinn disagrees with this concern because he believes the opposite of the concern. His position is that there needs to be civil disobedience because the electoral system is not functional and the majority always wins. Zinn states, “-about the voting process, you find that the voting process is a sham.” in reality the people are voting but they are not voting for who is morally right. They end up voting for the popular one. Also in voting the majority always wins and minority always suffers. The civil disobedience allows the minority to stand up for what they believe in and continue to have a conscience. Thoreau’s position is similar to Zinn’s in agreeing that there is a need of civil disobedience but he adds on that the majorities vote is not always right and is not a good guideline between right and wrong. “Must the Citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has everyman a conscience, then?” He is implying that men have a conscience for a reason. Man should use his conscience and decide for himself and not rely on the majority because they could be wrong. Spitz also agrees with Zinn and Thoreau that civil disobedience is necessary. His position is “… Under such circumstances, it may well be that obedience to democracy can best, and perhaps only, be served by disobedience to some laws.” In other words he is

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