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Edward Snowden's Civil Disobedience

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Civilized? Disobedience
Civil disobedience is the refusal of certain groups of people in the society to refuse to conform to certain laws, among them being refusal to pay fines and taxes with the view of staging a peaceful political protest. I also like to add Kimberly Brownlees’ view of civil disobedience in her literary piece, Is Edward Snowden a civil disobedient? “Civil disobedience is a constrained, conscientious, and communicative breach of law that aims to raise awareness about a cause and bring about lasting changes in law and policy.” In understanding American history, the call to end segregation in the country led to several civil disobedience occurrences that were organized and supported by Martin Luther King Jr. The main intent …show more content…

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”- King. Martin Luther King outlines that on the occasions when dialogue fail, there is need for the oppressed to stage peaceful nonviolent demonstrations to pass out their messages and show the urgent need for action to end social injustices. When King answers the question, why direct action, why sit ins, marches and so forth? Inst negotiation better? I fully understand his reply, of course negotiation is better, if you would have been willing to negotiate with them in the first place they wouldn’t have to result to these extreme measures. That’s the very reason for direct action! Nonviolent direct action creates so much crisis and tension that the community that has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to deal with the issue. This is apparent in the way the African American in America have advocated for equal rights in the society and the need to end segregation in the society to create a platform where both the whites and the colored can work freely in the society without any cases of discrimination. So, they can live together in

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The reason he takes action is because without speaking up, he knows that laws would not change. Dr. King also stands to lose the opportunity to settle and negotiate peacefully as opposed to violently if he does fail. This leads him to take up the initiative to protest using “non-violent direct action” (King). His actions are justified by what he stands to lose

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The students of Nashville College believed that King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” provided them justification for conducting sit-ins, and boycotts of public areas. King’s letter discussed that in order for negotiations to be made people must first create “tens[ion] and force people “to confront the issue”(2). This idea of tension shows that public demonstrations are the only way that leads to negotiation on Civil Rights. Therefore, King’s letter insinuated that for there to be change, people must do protests like sit-ins. Another way King’s letter gave premise for the students protesting was because he states that “freedom is never voluntarily given” however, “must be demanded by the oppressed.

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and they need to fight. Nothing else is working so fighting is the only working option. Dr. King’s purpose to this speech is to get out the word that the people need to fight with nonviolence. “We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” Martin Luther King is famous for fighting for equality using non violence.

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Throughout the American 1960’s there was a Civil Rights Movement. This movement gained a lot of traction within a short amount of time through many people. There were two leaders with opposing tactics but had the same goal reined in the movement. One leader was Martin Luther King with the tactic of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and integration. The second leader was Malcolm X with the tactic to fight back and to have the communities better themselves by being separate.

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In the article, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. and “The Letter to Viceroy by Mahatma Gandhi, both were about them use non-violent to achieve their goals. In order to achieve true freedom, society must find solution by use non-violence. To begin with, use non-violence achieve true freedom. According to “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., king state that “In any non-violence campaign there are four basic steps; collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action”. This demonstrates non-violence can determine injustice through direct action.

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By organizing the boycott and leading the nonviolent resistance against segregated buses, Dr. King embodied the principles of the social contract, asserting that every citizen should enjoy the same rights and privileges, regardless of race. This section provides a deep analysis of Dr. King's unwavering commitment to nonviolent resistance as a powerful tool for social and political change. By consistently advocating for peaceful means to achieve racial equality, he emphasized the persuasive and critical aspects of his philosophy. His unwavering belief in nonviolence aligned with the social contract's emphasis on peaceful democratic processes as the path to

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In paragraph 10 of his response, King addresses this with the following rhetorical questions; “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” King uses rhetorical questions to engage the audience and encourage them to contemplate the necessity of direct action. Instead of pointing out the obvious, he wants them to come to a conclusion on their own.

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It showed that even children who were willing to carry the burden of freedom followed the philosophy of non-violence not just as a course of action but rather as a philosophy needed to spark change. This direct use of pathos shows the harsh reality of discrimination and touches the hearts of readers to understand how deep the philosophy of non-violence ran in many. Correspondingly, “We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and … asked ourselves: ‘Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?’” (King 3). Dr. King discusses in his letter, the lengths protestors had to go to, to perform sit-ins and not cave into the temptation to retaliate.

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In order to achieve true freedom one must discover that you can break unjust laws through peaceful protest. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and “The Speech at The March Washington” by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community, the equality and power of education. We must learn to act with patients and not guns we must protect are self’s with a pen and paper not violence. Dr. King once4 said “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is unique in history which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.

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In order to further prove that nonviolence is the way to stop racism and gain equality, Dr. King writes: “I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood” (). In this quote, Dr. King once again argues that non violence and peace are the best ways to stop the cycle of violence. The phrase “the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle” shows that even though they are struggling, nonviolence can help them.

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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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People's justification to engage in civil disobedience rests on the unresponsiveness that their engagement to oppose an unjust law receives. People who yearn for a change in a policy might sometimes find themselves in a dead end because their “attempts to have the laws repealed have been ignored and legal protests and demonstrations have had no success” (Rawls 373). What Rawls says is that civil disobedience is a last option to oppose an unjust law; therefore, providing civil disobedients with a justification for their cause. Civil disobedience is the spark of light that people encountered at the dead end and they hope that this spark of light will illuminate to show that an unjust law should not exist at all. Martin Luther King, Jr, in his “Letter from

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890 Words | 4 Pages

Civil disobedience is a form of nonviolent protest that involves breaking the law to challenge unjust policies or practices. The term civil disobedience was theorised only in the 19th century by Henry Thoreau, although such forms of rebellion have existed for as long as injustices, and, until there are, I strongly believe that civil disobedience should be implemented to demand change and justice. Whenever certain rights are threatened, I think everyone has to rise up to protect them, because, as T. Jefferson stated: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”. Civil disobedience is one of the ways citizens can organise their resistance and, throughout history, it has proven itself successful many times; however, not everyone agrees

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Civil disobedience is a form of protest in which people actively and openly breach a law or rule to question its legitimacy. It is usually done peacefully and motivated by a strong sense that the law or regulation is unfair or discriminatory. Examples of civil disobedience include sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, and peaceful demonstrations. It has played a significant role in civil rights movements throughout history and to this day, from the examples of prominent figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to the Black Lives Matter movement and the Extinction Rebellion movement, as well as many differing non-violent protests today, all using civil disobedience to advance their causes and promote change. The right to protest is a

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Civil Disobedience is known as breaking the law because you don 't agree with a certain law or have a peaceful protest about that law or what you believe in. An example would be when Mahatma Gandhi walked miles to the Indian ocean as the citizens gathered more and more to fight for there Indian Independence. This occasion was called the Salt March. The reason for The Salt March was a March were all the citizens from India walked with gandhi to fight back for their Independence from the British, since it was taken away from the British.

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