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The case against civil disobedience
The case against civil disobedience
The case against civil disobedience
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The case against civil disobedience
The case against civil disobedience
The case against civil disobedience
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Recommended: The case against civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey governmental laws in order to do or change something (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Sophocles’ Antigone and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” both described civil disobedience within situations which they were the oppressed. However, Antigone and King engaged in civil disobedience in different ways. Antigone chose to disobey the law solely because of her religious views, she knew that her disobedience could lead to others’ suffering, but she was unwilling to abandon her plan, and her attitude toward the people against her was crude and stubborn. King, in contrast, based his disobedience more on logical reasoning and allusions, then he proposed a nonviolent action so his disobedience would not hurt others, and he respected those who were against him with his collected tone throughout the letter.
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. "-Socrates. Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society because the society is not free unless it's able to check the government. As long as the protest of the law remains peaceful it is a good thing. It is the public telling the government that they will not let them gain to much power and crush their human rights.
As Oscar Wilde said, “ It is through disobedience that progress has been made-- disobedience and rebellion.” Disobedience during the American Revolution was originally peaceful, but as grievances grew and British rule became harsher, Americans could no longer sit idly by. Radical disobedience to the law was necessary in order to promote change for American society. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, a drastic nonviolent movement was necessary to counteract the expectation of violence, reiterating to Americans that peaceful resistance to laws can positively affect a free society. The Civil Rights movement was split by two factions: one was a violent resistance named The Black Panthers and the other was a nonviolent protest led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil disobedience is a non-violent act of protest or resistance against unjust actions from the government. This form of collective action is based on the belief that individuals have the right and duty to challenge the authority if it acts against the interest of the people. In recognition of this, prominent figures of the Civil Rights movement often discussed civil disobedience; eventually debating on the justification of violent disobedience. In this essay, I will examine the arguments presented by Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Malcolm X in “The Ballot or Bullet” to recognize the various usage of civil disobedience; ultimately, evaluating the moral justifiability of using violence as a means of promoting
Civil disobedience is the refusal of something in a friendly manner. Politically, America is in a rough situation. America as a whole is slowly separating as a nation. For instance, African-Americans believe they are experiencing prejudice from “white” people. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana there a revolt organized by the infamous “Black Lives Matter” organization.
Dolores Huerta advocated for the farm workers by using civil disobedience to attract the government's attention, which led to a strike, so they were able to gain equality and get paid more. I would say the concept of this is about a nonviolent act that changes the law or the government's policy. We can also say it's when you're refusing to obey the law in a peaceful manner. In other words, I would say that civil disobedience is when you're refusing to pay your taxes or fines to the government. People that also experienced this were Henry David Thoreau, Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez.
I consider civil disobedience to be an easily-ignored pillar upon which our democracy was founded. In fact we are only established as a nation now because our founding fathers engaged in civil disobedience themselves. We were in a “social contract” of sorts with Great Britain and when we felt that they had not upheld their part of the contract (they did not allow us to create courts to maintain order, or to create a navy to defend ourselves, or to sustain our economy due to an inability to trade with any other countries), Thomas Jefferson concluded that it was our not only our right, but also our duty to break away. And it was Thomas Jefferson that combined all of the works of the great thinkers before him such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke
The question of whether or not peaceful resistance toward the law impacts society in a positive way is really a question of circumstance. If I were to refer back to the historical aspects of the subject, then my immediate answer would be yes, it does; peaceful resistance has often prevailed in situations that required immediate attention, yet were simply overlooked by the general public, despite their importance. One extremely important example of this would be the many boycotts during the civil rights movements of the 60's. Civil disobedience was a way to communicate the true inequality represented by the phrase, ''separate but equal'' by peacefully marching for their beliefs. For example, many white officials used various schemes to prevent
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.
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
You’re wrong. I’m right. End of discussion. Period. No ifs ands or buts about it.
Civil Disobedience is defined as "a public non-violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies. " The term 'civil disobedience' was coined by Henry David Thoreau in his 1848 essay describing his refusal to pay a state poll tax. There have been many famous acts of civil disobedience including the US Civil Rights Movement that included Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Boston Tea Party, resistance to Apartheid in South Africa, anti-abortion protests, environmental and animal rights, and the list continues. The question is can civil disobedience be a potentially justifiable breach of law that in turn brings about a social change for the greater good?
Civil disobedience is the deliberate action against an unjust law to invoke a positive change in government and society. Civilians have the right to refute these types of unjust laws to eliminate inequality and government’s unjust nature by following conscience before laws for moral guidance. As demonstrated in Antigone, this is depicted by the daughter of Oedipus, who disobeys Creon’s law for the greater good because of the laws unjust nature. In Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist, promotes this concept as well through his philosophical standpoint of the flaws of the government. Lastly, in Dr. King’s letter he qualifies the idea of civilians disobeying their government through non violent campaigns to stand up against
Smoking is probably the leading preventable cause of death or bad health around the world, it can also lead to nicotine dependence. The transtheoretical model (TTM) has shown that behaviour change is the most effective when dealing with the cessation of smoking. The TTM consists of five stages of change, with ten process during that time. While in Singapore, the government and media have been trying to cut down the number of individuals that smoke, it has shown that their methods are not working. In fact, is has shown that the number of smokers in Singapore has gone up.
“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