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Peaceful Resistance

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One of the greatest paradoxes of humanity is that individuals capable of compassion and reason can commit blatantly atrocious acts without even realizing they’re wrong. The extent to which tradition and culture blind every human reveals a dark aspect of human nature and the reality that we are all a 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 …show more content…
It is thus through the social tensions created by peaceful protests that society flourishes. Contemporary social observer Sarah Vowell underlines the importance of these social tensions when she writes, “[m]y ideal picture of citizenship will always be an argument, not a sing-along.” If individuals do not challenge society, the masses will stumble along blindly, committing atrocities in the name of tradition and culture without ever becoming aware of reality. The purpose of peaceful resistance is to draw the society’s eye to a wrong that society has generally accepted and force discussion about this wrong. This was the goal of Gandhi when he spearheaded the movement for Indian Independence, and it is the goal of the Black Lives Matter organisation …show more content…
To understand the impact of peaceful resistance on individuals it is perhaps easiest to look at a society in which peaceful resistance was almost completely nonexistent or oppressed. In Nazi Germany a whole society of people turned against their neighbors and peers, allowing for the genocide of eleven million people. Normal individuals shaped by their culture became monsters. This is just one of the numerous examples of the atrocities committed by an enormous group of individuals as they followed what was accepted by society. The same mindset has allowed the existence of chattel slavery in advanced societies and the more recent Rwandan Genocide. Though man exhibits many noble qualities, we are all in some ways sheep, controlled by societal expectations and culture. When peaceful protest does not exist in a society, when there is no voice to reveal the horrendous crimes committed by everyone, society alone is not damaged for each individual of that society exists in his basest form. However, when peaceful resistance attracts the eyes of society and individuals are confronted with awareness, compassion is born. Martin Luther King Jr. used peaceful resistance to show America and the world the inequality of the Jim Crow laws. Not only were these laws abolished, but tolerance and compassion grew throughout America, and though racism still plagues our country, the

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