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Kurt Schock's Civil Disobedience

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Civil disobedience is the end-result of numerous years of struggle, fear and death. For a large quantity of individuals, civil disobedience is the only way out of oppression from a tyrannical leader. For example, the Chilean population under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, from 1973 to 1990, lived in constant trepidation because of the endless kidnappings, wrongful incarcerations, violation of human rights, torture and murder. By instilling fear on the masses, Pinochet was guaranteeing that his power and authority would remain in Chile, due to no one having the courage to publicize Pinochet's atrocities. Eventually, Chile's populace became tired of living in fear and mistrust, that they rallied leading to Pinochet being ousted …show more content…

During the process of gathering and rioting in a nonviolent manner, the more aggrandized the faction seems, the more they attract attention. Once a faction acquires attention from the public, media, etc., the people in power will start to feel intimidated. Once individuals in authority, realize that the faction keeps expanding and they keep obtaining more support, then they apply martial law in order to appease the masses or else they will face the consequences of their actions. Once the populace realizes that their cause of fighting is bigger than any individual, that is the beginning point towards victory. Schock, during his analysis of the downfall of the Shah states, "the Shah was toppled not by an armed insurgency, but rather by an unarmed insurrection whereby ordinary citizens engaged in methods of nonviolent action, such as protests, demonstrations, strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience"(Schock p.3). Due to the chaos and the threat that oppressed factions demonstrated during their fight against the oppressor and place a leader in charge that will be the voice of minorities. As Schock states in his case study, factions do not require to be violent to in order to their demand met, all they require is unity as a group and to know that their fight will take time, but the overall goal will benefit their generation and future generations to

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