Virtuous Disobedience In 1891, Irish author Oscar Wilde made a claim that portrayed disobedience as a valuable human trait that can also promote social progress. I agree with Oscar Wilde in the idea that disobedience is a virtuous quality when it is employed in a nonviolent matter. When mixed with the social poison that is violence, however, disobedience only serves to galvanize more individuals against the cause that is being fought for. When done without the use of violence, disobedience is a highly effective tool for bringing about progressive change to the society around us. Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian nationalistic movement for increased rights for Indians as well as an eventual call for independence from Great Britain. …show more content…
This has been made evident with the current state of the Black Lives Matter movement. The members of this movement are fighting for the removal of systematic injustices faced by blacks in general by groups like select police officers. This is certainly an issue that should be addressed and that would garner support if it was done entirely in a non-violent fashion. This was not the case. A small minority of the members of the Black Lives Matter have become the voice of the group and have never hesitated to escalate protests into full blown looting sprees and attacks against stationed riot police. This has left the group with a stigma of being merely a band of hoodlums that only wish to lash out at the men in women in blue that protect us all from chaos. It has even spawned several satirical groups targeting the perceived exclusiveness of Black Lives Matter, including White Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and All Lives Matter. This degeneration of virtuous movements for positive social change through the inclusion of violence can also be found in the protests currently occurring against Trump. Though acts of violence geared against Trump are not as common as the nonviolent, those few instances serve only to galvanize those that support Trump and to further divide this great nation further away from reconciliation.