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Why civil disobedience is good
Civil disobedience impacts on society
Civil disobedience impacts on society
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Why Civil Disobedience Is Justified: "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." This quote is stated by one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. Now think for a second, what would have happened if our seven founding fathers had never opposed the tyranny regime of Great Britain? If this were to happen, we would never have the great nation we have today. Therefore, fighting against oppression impacts society in a positive way. Throughout history, the majority of the time, civil disobedience has only shaped the world we live in today. For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. was protesting for equality among all citizens. Another individual that opposed oppression was Mahatma Gandhi who also disobeyed the law for a great cause which was the Salt March. One of the major civil disobedience that has changed the world and ignited a new era is the Boston Tea Party because it leads citizens to believe that they could stand up to the tyranny of Great Britain. On the other side of the perspective, civil disobedience has its negative effects. For instance, one single peaceful protest can turn into a violent riot. In addition to that, rebellion and anarchy can arise from these fights of oppression, all it takes is one single fire to be shot. Besides that, sometimes protests only make their …show more content…
The Boston Tea Party revolved around Great Britain charging taxes on tea to the Americans. This was not the first injustice thing Britain had done to our fellow Americans, thus they decided to take a stand. This simple event ignited something, sending one message to Britain: we will no longer stand this injustice, we will fight for our freedom. If our founding fathers fought against oppression then why would it have a negative effect on our society today? We are simply following the great steps our founding fathers took action upon, the only difference is today's
The civil and eventually violent disobedience of the thirteen colonies against England resulted in the birth of now one of the most powerful nations in the world. The civil disobedience of those willing to go against the norm allowed for Americans to be able to marry who they chose. It is because of Nelson Mandela getting arrested for what he believed in to allow for south Africa to be free from segregation. Civil disobedience has paved the way for society to become better because at some points society was not based on fairness. It was based on cruel ideologies and those ideologies put laws into affect that were meant to lower certain groups of people. So by breaking those laws it awakens those groups and allows them the motivation to go up against these unfair laws and in doing this allows for these unfair laws to be
When a citizen abides by the social contract, they initially agree to enter and be a participant of a civil society. The contract essentially binds people into a community that exists for mutual preservation. When a person wants to be a member of civil society, they sacrifice the physical freedom of being able to do whatever they please, but they gain the civil freedom of being able to think and act rationally and morally. Citizens have what is called prima facie obligation to obey the laws of a relatively just state. A prima facie duty is an obligation that we should try to satisfy but that can be overridden on occasion by another, stronger duty. When it comes to prima facie duty, this duty can be outweighed by a higher order obligation or
Civil Disobedience, as stated in the prompt, is the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeying it while accepting the consequences. Many people believe this has a negative impact on the free society because they believe civil disobedience can be dangerous or harmful. Civil disobedience does not negatively affect the free society in a dangerous manner because it is peaceful and once it becomes harmful to the free society then it is not civil disobedience. Thoreau believed civil disobedience is an effective way of changing laws that are unjust or changing things that as a society and to the people does not seem correct. This peaceful act of resistance positively impacts a free society. Some examples are Muhammad Ali peacefully denying the draft and getting arrested. These men believed that what they saw was wrong and they did something about it but they did it peacefully.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr passed away from a sniper’s bullet. He gave us thirteen years of nonviolent protest during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. Before I can give my opinion on the history of race relations in the United States since King’s assassination in 1968 strengthened or weakened his arguments on the necessity and value of civil disobedience? You should know the meaning of civil disobedience. The word civil has several definitions. “The one that is intended in this case is "relating to citizens and their interrelations with one another or with the state", and so civil disobedience means "disobedience to the state". Sometimes people assume that civil in this case means "observing accepted social forms; polite" which would make civil disobedience something like polite, orderly disobedience. Although this is an acceptable dictionary definition of the word civil, it is not what is intended here. This misinterpretation is one reason the essay (by Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849) is sometimes considered to be an argument for pacifism or for exclusively nonviolent resistance”.
The Boston Tea Party was significant act of civil disobedience that worried the Americans about the issue of taxation, but it helped spark the Revolutionary War. The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773 and it created the issue of taxation causing the Tea Act to appear. I chose the Boston Tea Party because it is an odd
The Boston tea party was a brief incident among many, composing, economic, and political crisis that ultimately caused a revolution. These events consisted of The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, the Tea Act, and of course the Boston Tea Party. The incident caused by the colonies infuriated the British government therefore as punishment parliament responded to the abuse with the Coercive Acts of 1774 . When the thirteen colonies once again decided to resist the British troops revolution spread. “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” This act later on lead to the American Revolutionary War, were years later independence was
In our country’s history, Civil Disobedience has had positive effects upon legislation and societal norms. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states five basic forms of expression that are to be protected by the government: Speech, Press, Assembly, Religion, and Petition. The Founders, in essence, created a means by which the average citizen can achieve political and social change. Justice William J. Brennan Jr. stated in 1989 that, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government cannot prohibit the expression of an idea simply because the society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”* When citizens speak out or
Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by the use of passive resistance or other nonviolent means. The use of nonviolence runs throughout history however the fusion of organized mass struggle and nonviolence is relatively new.
Comparing the Civil Disobedience of Martin Luther King Jr., Henry David Thoreau, and Mohandas Gandhi. 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 increase in inequality.
The Boston Tea party was an event that took place on December 16, 1773. It was when about 70 men boarded 3 British ships and dumped about 46 Tons of tea into the sea. This lead to the War of Independence, The Tea Act was the final straw in a series of lame policies and taxes, by Britain on her American colonies. The policy ignited a “powder keg” of anger and resentment among American colonists and was the catalyst of the Boston Tea Party. The passing of the Tea Act imposed no new taxes on the American colonies. The tax on tea had existed since the passing of the 1767 Townshend Revenue Act. Along with tea, the Townshend Revenue Act also taxed glass, lead, oil, paint, and paper. Due to boycotts and protests, the Townshend Revenue Act’s taxes were repealed on all commodities except tea in 1770. The tea tax was kept in order to maintain Parliament’s right to tax the colonies. The point of the Tea Act wasnt to anger American colonists, instead it was meant to be a bailout policy to get the British East India Company out of debt. The British East India Company was suffering from massive amounts of money the British owed incurred primarily from annual contractual payments due to the British government totaling £400,000 per year. Additionally, the British East India Company was suffering financially because of the of unstable political and economic issues in India, and European markets were weak due to debts from the French and Indian War among other things.
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 patriots had to go to extreme measures to have the British notice them. That showed how little the British actually cared about the colonists and their needs. The Boston Tea Party reflected on the refusal of the patriots to adhere to the Tea Act. It also showed that the patriots would not let Parliament control their taxes without proper representation. It was necessary part of the patriot effort for resistance.
All in all, civil disobedience has made many positive changes in the world today. Nevertheless, the end goal or result of any act of civil disobedience is not meant to benefit the individual, but the community as a whole. The ends of such an act should not be a private gain, but a public gain. Just like in The Hunger Games, how Peeta and Katniss remained brave by risking their lives to stand up for their districts.
My criteria for when an act of civil disobedience is morally justifiable is when it is nonviolent, done in protest of an unjust law, only involves breaking minor laws, the most effective way and your reasons are clear and made known. I agree with King that civil disobedience is morally justifiable only when it is nonviolent. Nonviolent measures are actions that do not physically hurt other people or destroy property. Civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be morally justifiable because people have to maintain the higher moral ground when protesting an unjust law. If people were violently protesting, then it makes them just as bad and immoral as the people who are persecuting them because they could be destroying innocent people’s property or hurting those that haven’t done anything wrong.
Civil disobedience is an issue that has been present in society for many of years. The United States of America is known to be a free society, “A society where people shall have the right to exercise unlimited freedom in their own lives, freedom to live in whatever manner they choose, freedom to pursue their own goals, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal rights of others to do the same(afreesociety.blogspot.com). ” Civil disobedience forcibly interferes with other peoples rights to a free society. Peaceful resistance to laws is a better alternative rather than violence and protest.