...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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...Throughout “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, King makes a similar statement about civil disobedience and the law. He states that civil disobedience must occur after four steps are taken. Collection of facts to determine whether there are injustices, negotiation, self purification, and direct action must occur before civil disobedience transpires. He argues that “there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes an injustice when it is used to maintain segregation” (5). Ultimately, a law becomes unjust when it promotes injustice. This is when civil disobedience can occur as laws that promote segregation and inequality are unjust. King appeals to a higher law whenever a command of the state conflicts with his moral principles. Natural law can be described as King’s guide to civil disobedience. When the state does not conform with natural law, civil...
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...To define civil disobedience is first and foremost, to understand the ultimate goal of such an act as well as to define what dictates laws to be just or unjust. Is the ultimate goal the need for power and/or the need for peace? How does one decide what dictates just or unjust laws. Is it conscience alone, moral conviction or just a blatant abuse of power? The concept of morality in its goal either way, must be questioned. The moral divide that can occur in fighting a cause is full of variables. The division between the moral convictions of one’s conscience can collide with man’s law and injustice. One constant variable will always remain, and that, is the pursuit of one’s ultimate goal. “A simplistic definition of civil disobedience provides...
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...In 1891, Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) observed, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Civil disobedience can be valuable and promote social progress when used for valid reasons. However, when using disobedience for invalid reasons, it promotes wrongdoings instead of social progress. Humans must differentiate between progress and ignorance to positively impact a free society. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, he argued that peaceful debates and arguments would put an end to segregation. King was a devout Christian member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and a...
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...numerous civil disobedience demonstrations. Although civil disobedience has not always shown to be positive, the gain form it overshadows the loss. As is was said by Henry David Thoreau in "It is Civil Disobedience", "Unjust Laws exist." If we conform to such laws we are doing our society a moral injustice. As Rosa Park once said, "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right." Due to this type of philosophy we are able to live in a world of civil equality for all humans beings. If people had rejected this philosophy and expected the law to always be just, there would have never been progress. Through demonstrations held by Martin Luther King and other civil rights advocates we have seen be arrested for laws which...
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...Civil Disobedience: A Tool for the People History is filled with examples of the ways the people sought political change including rebellion, assassination, and war. One more peaceful, relatively new idea on protesting the government is civil disobedience. Theologian Henry David Thoreau created the term “Civil Disobedience” in his 1849 essay. One partakes in civil disobedience when one defines opposition to laws on a moral basis and accepts the consequences in order to call attention to, or bring about change (Brownlee). It has been implemented several times over the course of almost one-hundred and seventy years, and today it still is used to great effect. Despite many calling civil disobedience an excuse for anarchy and labeling it superfluous...
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...- 2 – The LD File Civil Disobedience Index Topic Overview 3-7 Definitions 8-10 Affirmative Cases 11-19 Negative Cases 20-25 Affirmative Extensions 26-34 Civil disobedience worked to free India. 26 Civil disobedience overthrew the communists in Poland. 26 The tradition of civil disobedience in America goes all the way back to the founders. 26 Civil disobedience can serve to prevent situations from escalating into violence. 27 Civil Disobedience has been used to promote peace. 27 Civil disobedience was used to promote racial equality. 27 Civil disobedience is used to try to prevent the destruction of the environment. 27 Civil disobedience is effective at changing the law. 28 Legal channels can take too long. 28 Consent to obey just laws does not imply consent to obey unjust ones. 28 Distinguishing between just and unjust laws to disobey can be universalized. 28 Civil disobedience can be stabilizing to a community by spreading a shared sense of justice. 29 Sometimes it is only the unjustified response to civil disobedience that has harmful consequence. 29 Civil disobedience is traditionally non-violent. 29 Civil disobedience is a form of exercising free speech- which is essential in a democracy. 30 Civil disobedience has been used to fight slave laws 30 Civil disobedience played a role in ending the Vietnam war. 30 Civil disobedience shouldn’t be punished-...
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...I believe that the peaceful resistance to unjust laws do in fact positively impact a free society. In order to properly display and explain my reasoning, I must first provide the definition of what an unjust law is. An unjust law is any law that does not align with the natural law as known by reason and common sense. Once one is able to understand this definition, it is easier to explain the positive impact that peaceful resistance has on a free society. The effect is positive because it gives voice to unjust laws. I would like to use the example provided of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” written by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. One of the first points that Dr. King address is that he knows that he is supposed to be in jail. He peacefully resisted and accepted the given consequences. The later goes on to explain what peaceful resistance is and how to properly achieve it. He...
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...Civil disobedience is the act of refusal against laws, taxes, or demands by a government usually staying peaceful in nature. Martin Luther King Jr. and Antigone implement civil disobedience to defy unjust law; however, both approaches used to go against the wrong laws are different. Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader for the civil rights movement to put an end to segregation through civil disobedience by stressing the importance of peacefully protesting; while Antigone purposely went against the law, knowing the consequences, to follow God’s law instead of man-made law in a holy effort to bury her late brother Polyneices. Martin Luther King Jr. goes against unjust laws through civil disobedience by initiating peaceful protests. He believed that using nonviolent tactics are better at showing the immorality the unjust laws’ and calls for black people to fight the long battle against segregation. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he reveals the unjust treatment going on in Birmingham and why it is important for him to be there helping, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already...
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...Civil disobedience is an active refusal to obey certain laws, commands, and demands of a government in a nonviolent way, in hopes to influence the government to change the rules and regulations they had put in place for a single group of people. Henry David Thoreau wrote a book titled "Civil Disobedience"; he wrote this book to protest slavery in the United States and the Mexican-American War. (Why Did Thoreau) He rebelled by not paying taxes because when he paid taxes the funds were going to both events he did not support at all. He stayed true to his morals so much so he was even put in jail for a night. The acts of Thoreau showed the Americans that if nobody spoke up, they could be stuck in the same unjust that they were used to living...
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...Martin Luther King, Jr said, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Civil disobedience is part of our culture. People stand up for themselves when laws, rules, or just when things are unfair and unjust. Martin Luther King, Jr is a prime example of civil disobedience. In his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” he describes his own thoughts on civil disobedience through real life experiences. David Thoreau is also a main figure in civil disobedience from his letter, “Civil Disobedience.” He talks about what he did to stand up for what he felt was right. There is a couple of reasons to believe in civil disobedience , one it can bring attention to main topics and also create real change in society. Civil disobedience is only...
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...Condemning Civil Disobedience Recurringly, civil disobedience is an abstract idea revolutionaries made to combat unjust legislature. Unjust legislature should be dealt with accordingly, but civil disobedience is not that way. Natural rights as a citizen should not doubt preserved, but when it comes to subduing unjust law, sometimes the best option is to just let it persist. Doing nothing is better than disorganizing your country through civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the nonviolent protesting of oppressed or unjustly treated groups, usually resulting in unlawful acts. These acts are driven by passion, pain, and desire to reform the government. But in reality, is civil disobedience the correct approach to having your voice heard? Thoreau stands to civil disobedience saying, “ 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, Paragraph 16]. The acts are claimed to be moral and to benefit the public, however, these limelight “martyrs” are radicals in reality. Going against the law in any shape or form is unpatriotic and when one might say the government themselves go against the law themselves, sadly that is not your place to take action against. Checks and balances are upheld to make sure unjust or...
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...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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...Luther King Jr. was imprisoned in Birmingham city jail for a peaceful protest, eight white clergymen from Alabama wrote an article entitled “A Call for Unity”. In it they agreed with the need for desegregation and acknowledged the common social injustices in Birmingham, but ultimately criticized King’s approach and called direct action “unwise and untimely”. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a response to these criticisms as King states in the opening paragraph of the letter addressed to “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”. He has written “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a response to eight white men who share in his faith, his cause, but dismiss his approach. The audience, also, extends to African Americans at this time, members of the Christian church, and even segregationists willing to read it. It was made public in the June 12, 1963 edition of the Christian Century. The audience, throughout the years, has grown to encompass historians, students, and anyone who has studied the civil rights era. The purpose behind...
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...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 thrown in jail or are physically abused (103-110). Although the government took action against its people, the citizens continued to sneak around partying and revolting against the government. The citizens in Iran did not want to be controlled by the government because the laws enforced were...
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