Peaceful resistance to laws, also known as civil disobedience, both positively and negatively impacts a free society. If everyone were to disobey laws, an anarchy would exist; America would live in chaos. But, if everyone were to obey every law, then the spectrum would shift to the far left, and America could become a socialist country. Moreover, if civil obedience did not exist, America would not be a country today because nobody would have rebelled against the British! So, civil disobedience is both necessary and destructive depending on the situation. Let's take the classic examples of civil disobedience in the 1960s. Peaceful protesters such as men who conducted sit-ins in restaurants and Martin Luther King Jr.'s walk on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on his walk from Selma to Montgomery were …show more content…
These men and women helped pass fundamental legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. How did they accomplish this feat? Through civil disobedience. By peacefully disobeying laws and simply taking the punishments they received, they got the attention of lawmakers and Americans throughout the country. The result? A desire to help these people and a moment where people questioned why they were discriminating against a group of people simply because of their color. Because these activists disobeyed laws with no harm and received beatings and lynchings because of it, people took notice. Here, civil disobedience was undoubtedly positive to a free society. Moreover, when Edward Snowden committed his infamous act of revealing classified, government secrets to the American people, some regarded him as a hero while others