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Role of law in society
Role of law in society
Equal Rights and Fairness
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“We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal’.” - Martin Luther King Jr. Not every law is moral and justifiable even if it’s initial intent was meant to be. Just because a law or a government allows something, it does not mean that what they allow is right. It is important for people to take a stand and fight for justness. Laws could prevent someone from doing what is right. A government could be doing wrong to it’s people, making them suffer. Governments could be taking away what rightfully belongs to someone as well.
A law could take away your rights or stop you from doing what is right. Fighting it can end inequality, as in the
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Mohandas K. Gandhi said, “So long as it is your endeavour to control us with with justice and love, we will let you do so. But if you wish to strike at us from behind, we cannot permit it. Whatever you do in other matters, you will have to ask our opinion about the laws that concern us. If you make laws to keep us suppressed in a wrongful manner and without taking us into confidence, these laws will merely adorn the statute books” (Gandhi, 1916). Gandhi did not fight in a war. Instead, he took a stand on injustice using civil disobedience. He believed that the government was treating them poorly and unfairly; he decided not to let it continue. By disobeying the laws, he took a stand, gladly accepted punishment with no harm done to the wrongdoers, and fought transgression in the government so that his people will not have to suffer under the government’s rule.
Furthermore, a government can take away what rightfully belongs to someone. Chief Joseph was a native American who was fighting when the government wasn’t keeping their promises. In the section titled About The Author it stated, “During years of struggle against whites who wanted their land and broken promises from the federal government, Chief Joseph led his people in many battles to preserve their lands.” The government was taking away the land from the Native Americans. The people fought for as long as they could to prevent their land from being taken from
“ First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” (Mahatma Gandhi). Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar. Throughout his life Gandhi helped those in need. He was taught that everyone and everything is holy. He married at the custom age of 19 and went to London to study law. The thing that helped Gandhi promote nonviolence is that he worked his entire life saying that violence didn’t change the way people acted. He lived his life saying that an eye for an eye only made the whole world blind. Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he had something to prove and everyone else in the world agreed with him.
Chief Joseph and Helen Hunt Jackson are two very important people who both share strong yet different perspectives toward the treachery of the U.S. Government along with the unfair treatment of Indians around the 1800’s. Chief Joseph was born in 1840 in the Wallowa valley of Oregon, and belonged to the Nez Percé tribe, which was made up of some 400 indians. The Government had made many valid promises among the tribes, just to come back and break these words with more conflict and war. All Chief Joseph was in search for was for the chaos among the whites and indians to be replaced with peace, brotherhood, and equality. Stated in the text, “We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men.” In other words, Chief Joseph believed that people
King viewed civil disobedience as an obligation if laws were unjust, especially if the proponents of the unjust laws were not willing to negotiate as well as compromise the laws and situations. King states “You are quite right in calling for negotiation.
By doing this kind of protest he allowed many types of people to see what lengths he would go to get change. It would also show that his intent was towards helping people, but he needed to get their attention first. This protest was the best possible way to get the attention and help the people at the same
disobedience. He thought that people should live under what they believe in and not by
After spending a night in jail for his tax evasion, he became inspired to write “Civil Disobedience.” In this essay, he discusses the importance of detaching one’s self from the State and the power it holds over its people, by refraining from paying taxes and putting money into the government. The idea of allowing one’s self to be arrested in order to withhold one’s own values, rather than blindly following the mandates of the government, has inspired other civil rights activists throughout history, such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. Both these men fought against unjust laws, using non-violent, yet effective, methods of protest.
From the onset of man fighting for freedom or his beliefs, the question has always been whether one person can make a difference using words rather than wars. Philosophically, the concept of civil disobedience would appear to be an ineffective weapon against political injustice; history however has proven it to repeatedly be one of the most powerful weapons of the common man. Martin Luther King Jr. looked at the way African Americans were treated in the United States and saw an inequality. By refusing to pay his taxes and subsequently being imprisoned for a night, Henry David Thoreau demonstrated his intolerance for the American government. Under British rule, India remained oppressed until Mohandas Gandhi, with his doctrine of non-violence lead the country to freedom.
Gandhi made use of nonviolent and passive resistance through non-cooperation as his weapon of choice in the conflict against the British. The butchery of civilians by British military personnel resulted in increased public anger and acts of violence. Mahatma Gandhi criticized both the activities of the British Government and the revenge of the butchery from the Indians. He extended consolation to the British victims and denounced the riots. Initially, his party was opposed to his declaration.
Nelson Mandela: The Art of Civil Disobedience Have you ever wondered what it was like to make a difference and even change something in your country? How would you feel if you were considered a hero by your people? Civil disobedience is a form of protest that uses a law to show that it is not needed. The protestors intentionally violate a law that they are protesting against (Suber). For example, Rosa Parks used civil disobedience by sitting at the front of the bus because she believed that all people are the same and deserved equal rights.
Gandhi is motivated by religious means; he believes that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. He gets involved in several movements for equality, and he stresses non-violence very strongly. The Indians are very mad because British rule continues to limit their rights. They are supposed to all get fingerprinted, and their marriage laws are invalid. Gandhi’s followers vow to fight their oppressors to the death, but he discourages them from violence.
Violations to human rights are only justified if the ethical basis is defined upon the recognition of evil which often leads to a redefinition of the consensus of good among the public opinion. When the populace is left to there own devices this new idea of good becomes the root of evil itself. This was very prevalent in Hitler 's rise to power. Hitler began his political career at a time in Germany when the country was on it 's last legs. The country was crippled by the war debt from world war one. He redefined the public opinion of good over the course of his term by making the Jewish populace, scapegoats for the source of the countries woes as well as the root of the
“The strongest physical force bends before moral force when used in the defense of truth.” - Mahatma Gandhi (Bondurant). Mahatma Gandhi was the main leader in helping India become independent through the principles of non violence, self-rule, and the unity of Hindus and Muslims. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but he was given the name Mahatma later on in his life. He wanted to see an united India without the rule of the British Empire. He accomplished this with passive resistance or resistance by non violence because he wanted to show that violence is not always the best answer.
Despite numerous conflicts with the British and with the Muslims, India fought for its rights by doing what they felt was right. India under the British rule had some benefits as the new school system and outlawing sati but they did manage to trouble the Indians with taxation and other laws. Gandhi who was an outstanding, important figure in India’s way for independence who taught to fight with nonviolence.
However, is every law evil because it restricts us from being able to do whatever we want? Interestingly, not all laws limit our rights and what are naturally ours. Rather, many laws take active roles in protecting our rights and properties from unwanted external threats, so we can harmoniously and happily function and interact with other human beings. True freedom is not a freedom from external influences dictating what we need to do. Influential British philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes indicate that true freedom means being able to continue our daily and peaceful routines and to keep our rightful properties securely. Without a code of laws effectively halting evil oppressors from harming our qualities of lives, the offenders can do whatever they please, putting innocent people further into the chaotic states. Not all maliciously crafted laws represent the entire nature and spirits of laws. Hobbes in his work Levianthan tells us that “Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no