Kenneth Pan (Ia-Chi) Professor Darini Nicholas CH 400 -14 May 4, 2014 Ideas of Violence and Practices of Civil Disobedience: A Genealogy Approach Civil disobedience is an active refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government. It is one of the many approaches people have used to rebel against what they deem to be unfair laws. It is an important and effective way of protest that, although most of the time is “illegal”, is justified as an act of morality. Disobeying a law itself is not necessary civil disobedience, if the action of the violation of law has not be accompanied by moral argument, it is simply viewed as “law breaking” but not “civil disobedience.” Civil disobedience requires "carefully chosen and legitimate means ," which could have been illustrated through means of “violence”, but it is most commonly defined as a type of “non-violence resistance,” Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government ” in 1849 is the first article in which “Civil Disobedience” is ever mentioned in a scholarly journal and article. Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule, and that citizens have a “duty” to avoid allowing such breach. Thoreau believed resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent and non-violent, and openly supported violence in the Bleeding Kansas action to liberate the slave, stating in a speech that it was Brown’s “peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to secure the slave.(1859)” Thoreau “do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable.” He was fervent against slavery and actively supported the abolitionist mov... ... middle of paper ... ...and hymns were strictly forbidden during the years of the Soviet occupation, demonstrated civil disobedience through massive song festival where patriotic songs were played, did not come to violence. As Soviet tanks attempted to stop the progress towards independence, people acted as human shields to protect radio and TV stations from the Soviet tanks, which surprisingly resolved without any bloodshed. The Berkeley Free Speech Movement of 1960s US, was also a major event in which students to surround the police car in which Jack Weinberg, who was arrested because he refused to show his identification, was to be transported. Student of Berkeley remembered this act as an act that “organized their peers, and employing the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience in creative and powerful ways. ” Egyptian Revolution of 2011 Tibetan Protests 2009 2014 Venezuelan protests
In 1848, David Thoreau addressed and lectured civil disobedience to the Concord Lyceum in response to his jail time related to his protest of slavery and the Mexican War. In his lecture, Thoreau expresses in the beginning “That government is best which governs least,” which sets the topic for the rest of the lecture, and is arguably the overall theme of his speech. He chastises American institutions and policies, attempting to expand his views to others. In addition, he advances his views to his audience by way of urgency, analyzing the misdeeds of the government while stressing the time-critical importance of civil disobedience. Thoreau addresses civil disobedience to apprise the people of the need for a civil protest to the unjust laws created against the slaves and the Mexican-American war.
Civil disobedience is being disobedient to certain laws in a peaceful, but active manner. So the person who commits civil disobedience must actively rejects to follow certain laws of government and peacefully accept the consequences. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a typical example of modern civil disobedience. He actively rejected to follow
The two main things that Thoreau argues for in “Civil Disobedience” are the idea of a limited government and the individual’s right to resist an unjust government. By following their “Manifest Destiny”, American settlers were ignoring the rights of the land’s original owners and inhabitants. This can be observed in the bloody conflict between America and Mexico, the Mexican-American War, which ended in the annexation of Texas and Mexico losing a lot of its American territory. The war was even more offensive in Thoreau’s eyes because it allowed Texas to be a slave state.
From the monarchs of the ancient era to the democracy of today, order has been maintained by means of rules and regulations known as laws. Compliance with these laws is enforced through punishments ranging in severity according to the crimes committed to reduce violence and misconduct from individuals within a society. However, just as citizens consent to abide by the laws of the state in which they reside, one is compelled to preserve justice and condemn the unjust decisions of man when the social contract contradicts the laws sanctioned by God. Approaching this conflict between natural and manmade laws in a non-violent manner is called “civil disobedience”.
Civil Disobedience occurs when an individual or group of people are in violation of the law rather than a refusal of the system as a whole. There is evidence of civil disobedience dating back to the era after Jesus was born. Jesus followers broke the laws that went against their faith. An example of this is in Acts 4:19-20,”God told the church to preach the gospel, so they defied orders to keep quiet about Jesus,” In my opinion civil disobedience will always be needed in the world. The ability to identify with yourself and knowing right from wrong helps to explain my opinion. Often in society when civil
Civil disobedience is a refusal to follow certain rules and is usually shown through a peaceful form of protest. The Moratorium March was somewhat a civil disobedience event because although it started as a peaceful anti- war movement, violence was unavoidable. The vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful; however, a conflict broke out at the Justice Department when demonstrator’s started throwing rocks and bottles, which the police responded to with tear gas canisters (Leen). According to Henry David Thoreau’s statement in his essay “Civil Disobedience,” “If the machine of government…is of such a nature that it requires yo...
In the Theory of Justice by John Rawls, he defines civil disobedience,” I shall begin by defining civil disobedience as a public, nonviolent, conscientious yet political act contrary to law usually done with the aim of bringing about a change in the law or policies of the government”.
Civil Disobedience is a paradox. Civility and disobedience diametrically oppose one another; civility implies politeness or a regard to the status quo while disobedience is a refusal to submit to the standard. When these words are coupled together, however, they compliment one another. The purpose of Civil Disobedience is to disregard the obligation of observing a law with the intention of highlighting a need for change. Morality, Religion, and Ethics often play into the decision to willingly break a law which creates more depth behind the practical meaning phrase, because those three tend to emphasize a respect for authority and integrity. When people break the law in the name of civility, they often are asking questions like, “What must I
In the past in this country, Thoreau wrote an essay on Civil disobedience saying that people make the law and have a right to disobey unjust laws, to try and get those laws changed.
Civil Disobedience is a deliberate violation against the law in order to invoke change against a government policy. Civil disobedience can come in the form of running a red light or j-walking, or in more noticeable methods such as riots. Coined by American author and poet Henry David Thoreau, the term has developed to define the act of disobeying a law one sees as unfit or unjust. Usually the purpose of civil disobedience is to gain public attention to a perceived injustice and appeal to or gain support from the public in a non-violent way. The idea is to force the government to negotiate or else continue with the unwanted behavior; or in simpler terms, to “clog the machine” (“Civil Disobedience”). It is believed by many that the act of civil disobedience is justifiable in a democratic government like that of the United States. A Democracy is defined as a form of government controlled by elected representatives or by the people themselves. However, in order to have a stable government, it must be built on a stable society. Societal welfare is the general good for the public and how its members take action to provide opportunities and minimum standards. According to societal welfare, which is the sake of the emotional and physical well-being of the community, the laws must be abided and civil disobedience is morally unjust in our society. Once any member of the society questions the affairs of the state, the state may be given up for lost (“Jean Jacques Rousseau”).
Thoreau regards civil disobedience as duty of his fellow countrymen in order for them to be moral, upstanding Americans. Particularly in the...
Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" in 1849 after spending a night in the Walden town jail for refusing to pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican War. He recommended passive resistance as a form of tension that could lead to reform of unjust laws practiced by the government. He voiced civil disobedience as "An expression of the individual's liberty to create change" (Thoreau 530). Thoreau felt that the government had established order that resisted reform and change. "Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary" (Thoreau 531).
Justice is often misconceived as injustice, and thus some essential matters that require more legal attention than the others are neglected; ergo, some individuals aim to change that. The principles of civil disobedience, which are advocated in both “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. to the society, are present up to this time in the U.S. for that purpose. To begin with, Thoreau expresses that civil disobedience should be more implemented when the just resistance of the minority is seen legally unjust to the structure conformed by the majority. Supporting his position, Thoreau utilizes the role of the national tax in his time; its use which demoralizes the foreign relationship of the U.S.; its use which “enables the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood”; its use which supports “the present Mexican War” (Thoreau 948, 940).
In his essay, “Resistance to Civil Government,” often times dubbed, “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) argues against abiding by one’s State, in protest to the unjust laws within its government. Among many things, Thoreau was an American author, poet, and philosopher. He was a firm believer in the idea of civil disobedience, the act of refusing to obey certain laws of a government that are felt to be unjust. He opposed the laws regarding slavery, and did not support the Mexican-American war, believing it to be a tactic by the Southerners to spread slavery to the Southwest. To show his lack of support for the American government, he refused to pay his taxes.
As a child, disobedience becomes an important part of our learning experience. We are frequently reminded of what is good and what is bad. We learn to continue doing what is accepted, and change what is frowned upon. In The Individual in the Chains of Illusion, Fromm tells why disobedience should be accepted rather than obedience. He believes obedience will be the cause of the human race ending. But how could being obedient ruin our society?