...cause that the government deems worthy, though we will not shed it for what “we the people” believe on the home front. Or do we? Quite often through the peaceful resistance that is so common here, violence is the product of men and women’s strife: during the Boston Tea Party, the March From Selma in Alabama, the resistance in China’s Tiananmen Square, during the first spark of the Women’s Movement in the U.S. and abroad during the First World War, more recently the Black Lives Matter protests in Dallas, or anti-Trump protests in America’s big cities. Regardless of intentions, a great many public resistances turn violent. Therefore, it can be reasonably claimed that peaceful resistance is a false term. Resistance in any form has a negative impact on a free society due to the chaos it ensues, yet it is necessary considering the change it inspires to overcome oppressors. There is no such thing as peaceful resistance. In a direct resistance, like the ones we have seen in the past, such as the...
Words: 730 - Pages: 3
...America was founded on disobedience. What if the Revolutionary War had never happened because people didn't have the courage to disobey? Would there even be an America? If not for disobedience, would America still have slaves? If not for civil disobedience, would we still have segregation? As I ponder these questions, I come to the conclusion that resistance, particularly peaceful resistance, positively impacts a free society. Henry David Thoreau once stated, "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?" When I think of peaceful resistance, I think of Rosa Parks, Alice Paul, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi....
Words: 590 - Pages: 3
...product of our society. Therefore, because of inherent flaws in society caused by humanity’s blindness, it is the duty of every citizen to try to change society. Peaceful resistance to laws does not only have a positive impact on society, but is essential to society as is creates the social tension needed to bring about awareness and change and ultimately creates a more compassionate culture. Peaceful resistance brings hidden social abuses...
Words: 763 - Pages: 4
...Free societies are never easily obtained; they come from the persistence for justice that fuels revolutionaries. Dismantling the status quo is never completed without a substantial struggle and dedication to the cause. America won independence through war, along with countless other civilizations throughout time that yearned for a free society. Perhaps the most perplexing agent of change is peaceful resistance. In the past century, social justice warriors have embraced this method of protest as opposed to outright violence. The entire Civil Rights movement was ushered in with civil disobedience. Protesters actively defied laws and were consequently punished, and, in order to change a corrupt system, this peaceful resistance was continued. In...
Words: 793 - Pages: 4
...Peaceful protest has been a method that has been practiced by many organizations and individuals that has proved the success of the method and has been advantageous to the improvement of society. A form of peaceful protest that has shown to be a success was the technique of peacefully resisting to laws that organizations or individuals saw as unfit. This technique has been used many times before and still today as it is seen as symbolic to many people. Peaceful resistance to laws positively impact a free society proven by the success of Martin Luther King Jr's principle of non violent protest like the Montgomery bus boycott and currently San Francisco's 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's peaceful protest against the unjustness of police...
Words: 602 - Pages: 3
...Resistance towards a government can come in many diverse ways which could all impact key areas of the society whether it is locally, regionally, or even nationally. When it comes to positive or negative impacts of peaceful resistances toward the laws of a free society, I tend to lean towards more of the positive influences as I am a firm believer in non violent acts of disobedience and history can back me up on this. When we travel back to the civil rights movement era, there has definitely been many violent and non violent resistances displayed throughout the era but when you look at the results as a big picture I believe that peaceful protests were what made the civil rights movement a success. Before the civil rights movement protests seemed to come in...
Words: 757 - Pages: 4
...who fought against the Jim Crow Laws weren't just fighting to be rebellious against the nation, but they were fighting to be free of an unjust unconstitutional law that was established and enforced by our Government. When I say they were "fighting" that law I do not mean they were actually throwing riots and chaos everywhere they went. They were more so doing peace rally's. They had peaceful sit-ins, they drove a bus around the country, they had conferences and speeches. They were not doing what today's rebellions are trying to justify as "peaceful". They still stood for the Red, White, and Blue. They obeyed civil laws, they did not kill, nor did they light towns on fire. The MLK group only wanted others to feel love for them, to accept them into society, and to be treated as real Americans with real...
Words: 631 - Pages: 3
...Peaceful resistance to laws does have a positive impact on a free society. Peaceful resistance such as; protests, marching for a cause, and strikes are healthy to a society because they give a way for the citizens to voice their opinions to make sure their society is truly free. One of the best examples of peaceful disobedience is in the civil rights movements with Martin Luther King Jr. and his peaceful disobedience, another peaceful disobedience is with Rosa Parks in her fight for racial equality, and the marches and strikes from the Mexican American plantation workers. These examples had a positive impact on the society and helped make America as free as it is today, along with examples of peaceful protesting today for greater freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. is well known for his participation in the Civil Rights movement and has gone down in history as an example of how peaceful protesting can promote positive change. One of the ways that he did this was by writing letters from inside Birmingham jail. The letters that Martin...
Words: 667 - Pages: 3
...In the latter half 19th century, the nations of Europe were looking for new places to spread their culture, new markets, and new areas for obtaining raw materials. A hundred years before, the British lost North America to the colonists and as time went by, the European countries were slowly pushed out of their colonies in the Americas, leading to this age of imperialism in which European nations would carve up Africa and Asia to spread their empires. The belief of the Europeans was that the more territory you controlled the more powerful you were as a country. There were several different reactions from the native peoples of Asia and Africa concerning this European rush for land. Some people reacted with the optimistic approach of cooperation...
Words: 907 - Pages: 4
...On balance, peaceful resistance to laws deemed unjust are provocative in nature, however, civil disobedience becomes necessary when considering how American progress did not result from inaction, but rather peaceful opposition. In other words, to sit idle and to watch the practice of unjust laws is contradictory to American values of liberty and justice. The Founding Fathers purposefully instilled civil disobedience as a crucial element to the American identity in order to protect the individual’s political beliefs. By forming this nation under one of man’s greatest creation - the Constitution - our Founding Fathers acknowledged that peaceful resistance positively impacts free society by preserving democracy and civil rights. Peaceful measures...
Words: 785 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 582 - Pages: 3
...TWO TYPES OF PROTESTS MY OPINION / BELIEF I strongly believe yes and no peaceful resistance to law is a positive and negative impact to a free society. Peaceful protests are the key to having your freedom of speech against federal law . History has proven what a peaceful protests can do and what a riot can cause. I strongly believe that whatever you stand for whether violent and nonviolent protesting; is a freedom you are given, although you need to know what you are actually standing for and not just another bandwagon effect. Peaceful protests can have a positive impact or a negative impact. I strongly believe peaceful resistance to law is a positive and negative impact to a free society. There is a difference between two types of...
Words: 788 - Pages: 4
...August 28th, 1963. Your oxford shirt is damp with sweat as the humid air of summer in D.C. sticks to your skin. Voices shout to the beat of feet marching in unison. The voices beg for freedom, beg for representation. You are surrounded by people you’ve never met but now, they feel like family. They understand you more than you thought anyone would be able to. You didn’t think it was possible for people to be different from you and still the same. None of you sound the same or walk in the same shoes any other day but today, you are one. You fight for the same thing. Today, you all stand together literally and make your voices heard in a world that wishes to make you invisible. 54 years later. January 28th, 2017. The air is cold and smells like...
Words: 687 - Pages: 3
...concept of peaceful resistance or ‘Civil Disobedience’ comes in. Civil Disobedience is defined by Cambridge dictionary as “the refusal of citizens to obey certain laws or pay taxes as a peaceful way to express disapproval of those laws or taxes. ” This idea of peaceful resistance has positively impacted society in many instances. Peaceful resistance takes courage. An individual who decides to peacefully resist a law is often putting...
Words: 758 - Pages: 4
...Civil disobedience is referred to as “the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeying it while accepting the consequences”. It’s a pretty touchy subject because you have to keep in mind WHAT they are opposing; but it’s all opinion. You might think ___ is unfair, but that doesn’t mean everyone globally thinks it’s unfair. It’s a touchy subject because there is no unanimous, decisive, global thoughts or feelings on everything. When someone asks for an example of “civil disobedience”, what comes to mind? For many, Dr. Martin Luther Kings “Letter from Birmingham Jail” comes to mind; where a peaceful demonstration against segregation and racial terror throws one of the most influential civil rights leaders in jail. The...
Words: 539 - Pages: 3
