The Right to Protest The word ‘protest’ carries a vastly different connotation for every person who hears it, and it is everywhere in today’s politically divided society, hundreds of thousands of people are flooding to different events to protest acts, people, and organizations, to make their voices be heard. Some of these are peaceful, some are not. Every protest is different, but as there is no denying they are happening and will continue to happen it is important to question: to what extent should citizens be allowed to protest and defy the government? Not all protests are successful, but it would be unfair to dismiss protests as pointless. Protests along with other forms of civil unrest have always been an important part of our society …show more content…
For example, within the past year there has been a drastic increase in bills that would increase the penalties for what the government deems to be ‘unlawful’ demonstrations. These people argue that the government should not be allowed to do this because it’s not violent outbreaks that are being shut down, but instead the government has been focusing on more peaceful protests in public, especially those blocking roads. In a Washington Post article “How far can protesters go before the government steps in?” Lee Rowland, an attorney specializing in First Amendment issues, said “I’ve never seen a coordinated attack on protesters’ rights anywhere near this scale. These bills may be dressed up as being about obstruction or public safety, but make no mistake about it: these are about suppressing protests with draconian penalties so that the average person would think twice before getting out on the street and making their voice heard.” Citizens should not have to ‘think twice’ about going into public and expressing their discontent with an issue in a peaceful manner. They need to be allowed to peacefully protest without fear of a retaliation from the government. However, there is a key word here that limits what citizens should be able to do, and that is …show more content…
For example, in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess we meet F. Alexander, a supporter of civil unrest who believes that “Some of us have to fight. There are great traditions of liberty to defend” (180). In order to ‘fight’ for his liberty he and some of his friends write an article, focused on the main character Alex and the horrible mistreatment of him from the government. Posting articles to speak about and shed light on a situation is a simple act of perfectly acceptable protest. F. Alexander fulfilled his wish to speak out and send a message without physically hurting anyone. In a novel such as this one where violence and corruption are almost glorified, this action stands out because they easily could have taken another more violent route like many people are in today’s
As rational individuals, we do certain things that are beneficial towards us as we are individuals who are self interested. We can also stand up for things we believe in since we have the right. In the film “This is what democracy looks like”, we witness non-violent protestors who are protesting against the WTO and are being stripped of their right of freedom of speech and freedom of association just because the state has a problem with the type of protest that is occurring. Non-violent protestors are being arrested during the WTO meeting without a causal reason. I will argue that the state did not follow the criminal justice system’s liberal principles properly and by looking at the actions of the state against the citizens, citizens were stripped of their liberty and rights. On one hand the citizens are
"The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy." Civil Liberties Monitoring Project. Web. 01 Oct. 2011. .
Civil disobedience has its roots in one of this country’s most fundamental principles: popular sovereignty. The people hold the power, and those entrusted to govern by the people must wield
War holds the approximate greatness of a black hole, and is alike one in many ways. From times immemorial writers have used imagery, language appealing to one or more of the 5 senses, irony, things that go against what is expected, and structure, the way the story is written, to protest war. This form of protest has most likely existed since any point in which the existence of both war and written language intersected, and were a part of human life. Through the use of imagery, irony and structure, writers protest war.
Protests have long been a way for people to display their difference in opinion and gain support. One of the many protests against the war that had a powerful effect on public opini...
... people have an absolute right to voice their opinions and protest as long as it is done without trampling upon the legal rights of others. However, when any one, or group, attempts to violate the legal rights of others the government not only has the duty but has the Constitutional responsibility to intervene
Assembly can lead to change or it can lead to horrible circumstances, sometimes planned or sometimes accidental. Over the years people have used and abused their right to assemble, many have died, even more have been arrested. But, many issues have changed because of this right. Violence has been endured, and people’s lives have been changed. The Vietnam War is a perfect example of a group of protests that had many different outcomes. The Kent State shootings and the Democratic Convention of 1968 are examples of protests that went terribly wrong. Sit-ins and singing protest songs against violence are examples of peaceful protest.
The following essay will attempt to evaluate the approach taken by Dworkin and Habermas on their views of civil disobedience. The two main pieces of literature referred to will be Dworkin?s paper on 'Civil Disobedience and Nuclear Protest?' and Habermas's paper on 'Civil Disobedience: Litmus Test for the Democratic Constitutional State.' An outline of both Dworkin's and Habermas's approach will be given , further discussion will then focus on a reflective evaluation of these approaches. Firstly though, it is worth commenting on civil disobedience in a more general context. Most would agree that civil disobedience is a 'vital and protected form of political communication in modern constitutional democracies' and further the 'civil disobedience has a legitimate if informal place in the political culture of the community.' Civil disobedience can basically be broken down into two methods, either intentionally violating the law and thus incurring arrest (persuasive), or using the power of the masses to make prosecution too costly to pursue (non persuasive).
The tactic for violation of rights should be openness, because stimulated public is the purpose of civil disobedience. Unjust law...
By definition, civil disobedience means to actively refuse to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence (Wikipedia 2007). Many of the influential people in history have felt passionately about what they believe. These passions caused them to rebel against a government or authority. Many times they felt so strongly about what they believed and how they were being treated was wrong they became disobedient. They would take physical and verbal abuse for being disobedient but would never retaliate. They believed in what they thought was wrong and tried to change the way they were governed. Albert Einstein once said 'never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.' Albert Einstein's views seem to be reasonable. The claim by Albert Einstein is accurate because people should stand up for what they believe, they should know when they are right and their government is wrong, and they should trust in themselves and their own beliefs.
The occupy protests are ineffective protests because there is no clearly defined goal or a specified outcome for their cause. They are using unfocused and prolonged public live-ins rather than a mass protest to attain specific goals through the political system. Another part of this is that no one knows what they want. In a survey about the Occupy Movement, "26 percent of those polled said they were supporters of the Occupy movement, while 19 percent identified as opponents, and 52 percent said they neither supported nor opposed it (Zernike). At the start of the Tea Party movement, there was also a large percentage that did not know much about it. If we look at the Tea Party there were similar numbers when it started. 22 percent said they were supporters of the Tea Party, 27 percent said they were opponents, and 47 percent said they were neither. But the large majority said they did not know enough about the Occupy goals to say whether they approved or disapproved (Zernike). The Occupy movement wants to use pol...
In a concise essay, Thoreau proffers a challenge to all men, "not to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right." Over and over, almost redundantly, Thoreau stresses simplicity and individualism, as most transcendentalists (the new philosophical and literary movement of Thoreau's time) did. Thoreau clearly states, in his On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, that the government is unjust and doesn't represent the will of the people, that one man can't change the government, and that people succumb unconsciously to the will of the government. The first of these is a ridiculous notion; the second contradicted and supported alternately throughout the essay so that one cannot be sure of what they agree or disagree with while reading it because it always contradicts itself in the following paragraph; and the last, a well-thought-out and legitimate concept.
The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy. " Civil Liberties Monitoring Project. American Civil Liberties Monitoring Project, Summer 1998. Web. The Web.
Nonviolent protests such as Gandhi’s Indian independence movement (from Britain) have shown to be highly more effective than violent protest.一Even Though, Gandhi was assassinated, his movement was a success and his legacy lived on; he’s much like King in that way.一 In fact, two women, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan did a study on the effectiveness and success rates of nonviolent and violent protest in comparison to each other and wrote a book titled “Why Civil Resistance Works”. The book provides statistics that show that nonviolent protest are a lot more successful than violent protest. Chenoweth and Stephan analyze these statistics alongside results from case studies in different countries. Once they conclude that nonviolent protests are more effective, they proceed to analyze the reason why. They came to the deduced that one reason nonviolent protests are more successful is that more people feel inclined to participate in nonviolent protest because they are not risking their lives or obstructing their values. Another reason they believed nonviolent protests are more successful is that a government is less likely to retaliate against a nonviolent protest because they would lose international support based on conflict of morality. Also, a government overthrown sans violence is more likely to become democratic whereas a government overthrown
Employing the analogy of transmutation of iron into gold through contact with the philosopher’s stone, the verse hints that a spiritual transformation of an individual is possible through the recognition of, and sincere conviction in, the Satguru. The Ginans, like the Qur'an, not only emphasize but also encourage the use of reason, sound judgment, discernment, discretion and sagacity to differentiate between the truth and falsehood, as well as to draw a distinction between a true guide and a false guide. The metaphor of the ability of the swan to pick pearls from a lake and the call to trade in jewels instead of glass in verses four and five respectively of this composition, demonstrate the above-mentioned approach, just as the word pārkhu(n),used