...Civil Disobedience Civil Disobedience was a common topic between Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Each of these historic figures had varying views on what should be accepted in the light of civil disobedience. Thoreau felt that there should be a more violent take on what you believed in, while Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. felt that the people should have a peaceful nonviolent protest. The views of these offers vary due to the time period but they are all based on the same idea, civil disobedience. Thoreau, Gandhi, and King Jr. all expressed their views of civil disobedience differently. In Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”, he expressed his own ideas of civil disobedience with his words and actions. He showed his disagreement with the government’s policies by refusing to pay his taxes, and not reacting to how he was treated when he was jailed for the night. He believed that “the government is best which governs least” (Thoreau 392). In saying this he means that he would like to see a government that does not control the people harshly and lets them express their thoughts freely. Hare and Madden believe that civil disobedience should be “directed specifically to exert pressure that is likely to change an unjust situation” (Parker 37). While Thoreau suggests a more forceful approach, Gandhi hopes for a passive approach, Gandhi suggests a more peaceful approach when dealing with civil disobedience. He believes that if the people use force to acquire what...
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...crossing lines and getting in trouble, but can also be one the most effective way to get noticed. If an opinion is not being noticed, citizens can make it a priority to be heard because without a voice there can be no guidelines. In government, boundaries are needed to lead its citizens towards a righteous path; however, if a citizen leans toward another path of righteousness a voice is needed to be heard. Citizens should not be lurking in the shadows and keeping an opinion bottled up to never be heard. If an idea or belief gets shot down, a citizen can try again to make their idea noticed. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses civil disobedience in “ Letter from Birmingham Jail,” as “ Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (173). Although civil disobedience can alter life drastically, it does not mean to continue on the path of insanity, but to stand up for what you believe is just. While standing up for justice is admirable, however, it is not always easy. In Iran, the government can take disciplinary action towards its citizens striking fear and panic into their souls. In the book The Complete Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi, in which she discusses a hectic life in Iran. In chapter fourteen “The Wine,” Satrapi discusses how the government takes disciplinary action towards the citizens who chose to rebel by having a party. The citizens found at the party are...
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...Neguisa Sheikhpour Civil Disobedience In his essay, “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau discusses the injustice of the government and how it wrongfully forces people to do its will. Thoreau believes “that government is best which governs not at all,” but he also acknowledges that government serves a purpose. He writes, “It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation I which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” Thoreau realizes that society is not ready to live free government control but he sees that people are blindly obeying authority without listening to their conscience. It is not enough for one to have the right opinion, one must take action against what they consciously believe is wrong. According to Thoreau, there are three ways to deal with unjust laws: ignore our own opinions and obey the laws, obey the laws while trying to change them, or break the laws and accept the consequences. Thoreau admits that it is not practical for everyone to fight the government but he asks those people “at least, to wash his hands of and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give is practically his support.” There is no problem with respecting the law, but when the law is so wrong and so unjust, people have a duty and obligation to make it right. Some would say that Thoreau is an anarchist because of his reference to a “government that is best which governs not at all,” but that...
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...Pro Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience is a righteous way for a person or a group to make their point to the world. Great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Dr. MLK) and Mohandas K. Gandhi (Gandhi) harnessed the idea and brought it to its prominence. Civil disobedience in its purest form is a particularly strong concept because it requires a self-purification process. This process enlightens civil resisters to the reality of longsuffering for a cause without any type of retaliation. Also, there are arguments against civil disobedience. One such argument is “wait” because change will come. Another is that civil disobedience precipitates violence. These arguments are extremely weak. Because of these weak arguments along with the strong concept of self-purification, I am a proponent of civil disobedience. Dr. MLK was a firm believer in the self-purification process. In Letter from Birmingham Jail, he speaks of undertaking a process of self-purification. “We began a series of workshops on nonviolence and we repeatedly asked ourselves: ‘Are you able to accept blows without retaliation?’ ‘Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail (King 158)?’” Dr. MLK knew that in order to appeal to the public, they must endure the punishment without retaliation. This is explained when he says, “Laying out our case before the conscience of the local and national community (King 158).” Dr. MLK had a grasp on the notion that if his people were to become violent, they...
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...TomMendez Hacktivism and Civil Disobedience Hacktivism, though preferred by hackers and hacktivists to be kept without a definition, is generally thought of as hacking for a political cause. Hackers, those who have deep knowledge and understanding of the Internet and computer systems and networks, thrive on the openness and freedom the internet provides. Steven Levy’s “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution” published nearly three decades ago outlines the hacker’s creeds: 1. Access to computers should be unlimited and total. 2. All information should be free. 3. Mistrust authority – promote decentralization. 4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. 5. You create art and beauty on a computer. 6. Computers can change your life for the better. The operating system Linux, still widely used today, was created to conform to this ethical code. Linux pioneer Richard Stallman with the help of Linus Torvalds developed the GNU/Linux operating system. The software was made available under the General Public License, nicknamed “copyleft” (as opposed to copyright), meaning that the software was free to have and modify for anyone so long as users make the source freely available to others. This has created an open global community that “thrives on the free flow and sharing of information” (metac0m 1). Metac0m, the editor of The Hacktivist Magazine tells us “Hackers abhor censorship. Censorship...
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...We the Students Essay Contest In order to establish a free and just society, the people must be willing to reject unjust and immoral laws. This is because laws that violate the human rights of any individuals threaten everyone else as well. Civil disobedience is the violation of unjust laws and acceptance of the punishment that comes with breaking those laws. The punishment that comes with violating the law must be accepted in order to ensure that order is maintained and that so to draw a distinction between civil disobedience and lawlessness. Peaceful resistance to unjust laws is needed in order expose and call attention to laws that are unjust and therefore positively impacts society. The resistance must be peaceful or many may be unwilling...
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...Mandela a good amount of his political career reversing the effects of this system. He did so prior to his position in office by peaceful, some not peaceful, protests. These protests are an example of civil disobedience. “Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole.” - Henry David Thoreau. One of the oldest examples of civil disobedience is the Ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles. Nelson Mandela used many different...
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...“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.” -Aristotle. Being a good citizen means following laws set in place despite whether or not they are ethically correct to oneself. However, being a good person is disobeying unethical laws because they know that it's not the appropriate way to go about certain issues. Civil disobedience is one of the best ways to show your disagreement in a democratic government. Movements such as the Civil Rights Movement or the Flowers v. Guns have shown that if enough people support a cause then there will be change. Some could say current movements aren't as effective but Rome wasn't built in a day. Many of the past movements took years to accomplish the goals of the people. All...
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...shall we transgress them at once?” (Henry David Thoreau, 1849, “Civil Disobedience”) According to “Documents of Freedom,” Civil disobedience is when “Men such as Martin Luther King, Jr. violated unjust laws but willingly accepted the punishment that came with violating the law… often confused with simply violating laws that you do not like…Civil disobedience demands to accept the punishment otherwise, there would be no principled distinction between civil disobedience and mere lawlessness” (“The Documents of Freedom”). Peaceful resistance does positively impact a free society. Take Gandhi for example, he non-violently protested the registration law, through non-violent marches and labor strikes, all harmless, and in support of those who were treated unequally by the registration law, “The Boer government then agreed to end the most objectionable parts of the...
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...Thomas Jefferson had once said “To secure these rights,Governments are instituted among men,deriving their just power from the consent of the governed”.In the Quote,Jefferson is explaining that,the power of the Government is being held by the same people,and to secure the rights we want,we have different people who are not part of the Government that can help us to have the rights that is best for our country. The argument in this essay will be about Civil Disobedience,now Civil Disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines,as a peaceful form of political protest.This essay will include great examples about Civil Disobedience such as,”The Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King,”The Declaration...
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...When it comes to the pretention of Civil Disobedience and what can be seen as acts of indirect and direct civil disobedience. H.A. Bedau and Henry David Thoreau come to mind because of how they both saw things in different light but at a meaningful level they both thought the same about the government even through they expressed there ideals in completely different ways. Their ideas cross on many different paths as to which even Bedau talks about Thoreau in his essay in regards to being “responsible” for your actions. The main premise of Bedau’s argument in his essay of “civil disobedience and personal responsibility for justice” is to compare the idea of what is civil disobedience and who is responsible for the actions. Bedau spends a great...
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...context to shroud their rational judgement on certain policies. True change occurs when citizens organize initiative to reach a desired outcome that ultimately benefits society. The omnipresent notion of civil disobedience has historically been a detrimental pillar of multitudinous social and political revolutions. Civil disobedience serves a healthy factor of democracy because it creates a vocal platform for unaddressed deficiencies of society, it is an effective approach to promoting change peacefully, and it unifies support for greater reform. One of the most influential ways to communicate the ills of a society is to highlight controversy and shift in human attitudes. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, nonviolent disobedience “seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored” (King Jr.). In fact, one of the most significant elements of the American Civil Rights movement was this doctrine of disobedience. During this time...
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...In the society, we as citizens of the United States live today has a duty being civil disobedience. It is the meaning of breaking a law that is to believed as immoral or unjust to a fellow citizen. Throughout the years starting from the year of 1848, the idea of civil disobedience has been progressively developing within our nation. This conception has been established by allowing Americans fulfilling their duty of civil disobedience by engaging in amicable protest and armistice demonstrations to perpetuate the injustice that is being provided. Withal, in the essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” written by Henry David Thoreau, the author believes that it is the citizen’s duty to practice civil disobedience to demonstrate the unjust laws that are being presented from the government. Thoreau states that the fellow citizens should demonstrate civil disobedience when it “requires you to the...
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...Civil disobedience occurs when people feel the need to oppose an unjust law and feel the need for a change. It can be labeled as a form of protest whether it's peaceful or violent. Protest itself is a form of freedom of speech which is a given right to the people. People protest because they feel there is a need in change within the government or society. Peaceful protest is the best form of protest because it shows that the people are willing to negotiate to come to and understanding with the government so that a change can be made. Civl disobedience can be bad if your breaking a law that is immorally wrong such as murder or assault. If that happens it will look bad on the people and the government will punish the individual who caused the harm. An example of civil disobedience is the Black Lives Matter...
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...Civil disobedience is the act of refusing to obey the law; it is rebelling against the government. This is a highly sensitive subject when it comes to questioning whether it is justified or not. When the government legalizes a law that is too harsh or goes against religion, it stirs a protest among many. In addition, the act of rebellion wouldn’t be commendable if the act strengthens justice or remains passive-aggressive. A number of times, people believe it is never justifiable under the circumstances that it is normally dangerous and may cause other problems. However, Civil Disobedience is justified only when the law is threatening, the act is passive aggressive, and it strengthens justice. "Unjust Laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?" (Thoreau). At what point does the law no longer become what the people need? When the law itself causes more harm then obedience. Also, when it contradicts religion and moral standards."What we've learned is that our government is doing things worldwide that definitely directly affect our privacy as Americans but affect the privacy of other people globally as well" ("Why One Expert"). It is not a rare occurrence that we see unjust actions....
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