Civil Disobedience Analysis

Why partake in civil disobedience? Oscar Wilde, an influential author, has an opinion on utilization of civil disobedience. “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. Meaning, if a person wants to change society and its actions, they must rebel against the governing body in order to create effective alterations. Many situations exist where civil disobedience advocates change. In those situations, people have rights for disobedience, but must realize consequences may result from their disobedient actions. To commence, civil disobedience means “the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes

Thus, creating social progress. Martin Luther King Jr., author of The Letter From Birmingham Jail, defines using civil disobedience appropriately. He describes two different types of laws: Just, laws moral laws in agreement with god; and Unjust laws, laws that disagree with what god wants" (King 5). King argued that if any sign of an unjust law exists, people must rebel against it immediately in order for social progress to result (King 5). Henry Thoreau, author of Civil Disobedience, has an opinion that correlates with King's. “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 6) By asking this rhetorical question, Henry Thoreau implied that if a person sees a morally wrong law , he or she must peacefully rebel against for social progress to result. Civil disobedience exists appropriately to the extent that if law appears wrong, people need to take against it with willingness to pay for the consequences. For example, women voting in American History had no existence. According to god's will, he created all people, regardless of gender and race, in the image of god. Therefore, everyone, in god's creation, exists equal and the same. By denying women the right to vote, the law went against God's

But, amendment one of the constitution says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech” (First Amendment-Constitution np)... A one-page comic exists where people are utilizing their abilities of freedom of protest and freedom of speech. However, Uncle Sam states that “We're for Democracy, but not this much democracy” (Wasserman np) Sam's quotation meant that the government wants people to have freedoms to communicate their opinions, however, if the opinions of the people conflict with the governments, the government does not want the people to have a right to say anything. Since government gives people the right to say whatever they want whenever they want, people can communicate their opinions regardless of whether or not those opinions agree with the agenda of the government. Uncle Sam's opinion is wrong because the government gives absolute rights of freedom of speech. It cannot pick and choose what they people can and cannot say. Also, Jordan Peterson, psychology professor of the University of Toronto, utilized civil disobedience to communicate his opinion that he did not agree with the university's transgender pronouns. Peterson felt that the university was