Civil Disobedience: How Peaceful Resistances Positively Impact A Free Society

533 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeys the law while accepting the consequences of it. A peaceful resistance has many steps in being a resistance. The free society even though the society is free it can still be impacted positively and negatively. Many events have happened to impact the free society. I believe that peaceful resistances positively impact a free society. In a peaceful resistance there are many steps in order to achieve the peaceful resistance. First, the act of civil disobedience must be the last thought. Second, the act must be public. Third, the act must be done conscientiously. Fourth, the law protested must the law that was broken. Fifth, they must know the trouble they can get in for protesting. Sixth, the most important one, the act must be non-violent. …show more content…

Some think that civil disobedience is impacting the free society negatively and some think it is impacting the free society positively. “Protests are necessary and rightful in democracy to make sure everybody is well suited and happy living in the same society and that none feel left out or wronged. They also serve a bigger purpose as they make us question and re-consider our established moral ideologies.”(Quora) Civil disobedience can help people feel better about a law being pass or any government wrong doing. Also it can keep the constitution true to its word because the people have freedom of speech. If the people protesting know the consequences and doing the protest peacefully then it can impact the free society

Show More
Related

  • Civil Disobedience And Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    Justice is often misconceived as injustice, and thus some essential matters that require more legal attentions 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, is present up to this time in the U.S. for that purpose.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Civil Disobedience

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    When a citizen abides by the social contract, they initially agree to enter and be a participant of a civil society. The contract essentially binds people into a community that exists for mutual preservation. When a person wants to be a member of civil society, they sacrifice the physical freedom of being able to do whatever they please, but they gain the civil freedom of being able to think and act rationally and morally. Citizens have what is called prima facie obligation to obey the laws of a relatively just state. A prima facie duty is an obligation that we should try to satisfy but that can be overridden on occasion by another, stronger duty. When it comes to prima facie duty, this duty can be outweighed by a higher order obligation or

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience: Freedom Fighters or Criminals?

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    “No radical change on the plane of history is possible without crime,” This quote from Hermann Keyserling is just one of many statements that help describe the meaning and true raw power of Civil Disobedience. Civil disobedience as defined by Merriam Webster is the “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government”. The most promising and understandable of the definitions of Civil Disobedience would be that given to us by Gandhi from India “Compassion in the form of respectful disagreement”. Even the Veterans Fast for Life from here in the United States must agree when saying, “when leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders.” To understand why civil disobedience is so important in our lives you must first look into your heart and realize that the integrity of mankind has no need of rules.

    Read More

  • Why Is Civil Disobedience Bad

    534 Words  | 2 Pages

    Civil Disobedience, as stated in the prompt, is the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeying it while accepting the consequences. Many people believe this has a negative impact on the free society because they believe civil disobedience can be dangerous or harmful. Civil disobedience does not negatively affect the free society in a dangerous manner because it is peaceful and once it becomes harmful to the free society then it is not civil disobedience. Thoreau believed civil disobedience is an effective way of changing laws that are unjust or changing things that as a society and to the people does not seem correct. This peaceful act of resistance positively impacts a free society. Some examples are Muhammad Ali peacefully denying the draft and getting arrested. These men believed that what they saw was wrong and they did something about it but they did it peacefully.

    Read More

  • The Value of Civil Disobedience

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr passed away from a sniper’s bullet. He gave us thirteen years of nonviolent protest during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. Before I can give my opinion on the history of race relations in the United States since King’s assassination in 1968 strengthened or weakened his arguments on the necessity and value of civil disobedience? You should know the meaning of civil disobedience. The word civil has several definitions. “The one that is intended in this case is "relating to citizens and their interrelations with one another or with the state", and so civil disobedience means "disobedience to the state". Sometimes people assume that civil in this case means "observing accepted social forms; polite" which would make civil disobedience something like polite, orderly disobedience. Although this is an acceptable dictionary definition of the word civil, it is not what is intended here. This misinterpretation is one reason the essay (by Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849) is sometimes considered to be an argument for pacifism or for exclusively nonviolent resistance”.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience and the Abusive Power of Government

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    In response to the annexation of Texas in 1845 by the United States, Henry David Thoreau's wrote the essay, Civil Disobedience.  Thoreau felt that this purely economic move by the United States expedited the Civil War, which he, and many Americans, disapproved of.  In his essay, Thoreau argues that government should not be in control of the people and that the people should be able to rule themselves freely however they please.  In addition, he clearly states and points out that in many instances it is best when individual rights take priority over state authority.

    Read More

  • Lessons in Civil Disobedience

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is important to notice that if civil disobedience was not effective, then it would not be continually used to disobey the law. In "The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy” by Kayla Starr, she explains why we have the right to participate in civil disobedience. “The U.S. Bill of Rights asserts that the authority of a government is derived from the consent of the governed, and whenever any form of government becomes destructive, it is the right and duty of the people to alter or abolish it” (Starr 1). There are many examples of how effective this act of defiance could be. During the Boston Tea Party, the citizens of Massachusetts practiced civil disobedience by throwing Britain’s tea into the Boston harbor because they did not want to pay taxes on tea. Now, you can see that the Boston Tea Party played a major role in the United States becoming independent from Britain (Starr 1). Although violating the law has consequences, in this case the reward outweighed the risk. I think that by realizing the power that civil disobedience carries, we can stand up against ...

    Read More

  • Paradox Of Civil Disobedience

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    In our country’s history, Civil Disobedience has had positive effects upon legislation and societal norms. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states five basic forms of expression that are to be protected by the government: Speech, Press, Assembly, Religion, and Petition. The Founders, in essence, created a means by which the average citizen can achieve political and social change. Justice William J. Brennan Jr. stated in 1989 that, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government cannot prohibit the expression of an idea simply because the society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”* When citizens speak out or

    Read More

  • The Pros and Cons of Civil Disobedience

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by the use of passive resistance or other nonviolent means. The use of nonviolence runs throughout history however the fusion of organized mass struggle and nonviolence is relatively new.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Civil Disobedience

    3701 Words  | 8 Pages

    Despite the belief that fighting with violence is effective, civil disobedience has been tried throughout history and been successful. Fighting violence with violence leaves no oppertunity for peace to work. By refusing to fight back violently, Martin Luther King Jr. took a race of people, taught them the value of their voice, and they earned the right to vote. Henry David Thoreau presented his doctrine that no man should cooperate with laws that are unjust, but, he must be willing to accept the punishment society sets for breaking those laws, and hundreds of years later, people are still inspired by his words. Mohandas K. Gandhi lead an entire country to its freedom, using only his morals and faith to guide him, as well as those who followed him, proving that one man can make a difference. Civil disobedience is the single tool that any person can use to fight for what they want, and they will be heard. After centuries of questioning it, it appears that the pen truly is mightier than the sword.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience Essay

    517 Words  | 2 Pages

    One would of course be the fact that they are disobeying the law and must be handled in a corresponding matter. However, since as long as they do no physical nor emotional harm to other people, it is merely a demonstration. One could argue that someone is disguising their actual activity by using civil disobedience. For instance, and a group of people may assemble on the route of an official causing a traffic issue and blockade specifically for one person. If this were their true goal and when questioned they responded with it being a demonstration, so long as they kept such disobedience civil, police would have no trouble making way for the official.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience as a Method of Protest

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    The use of civil disobedience is a respectable way of protesting a governments rule. When someone believes that they are being forced into following unjust laws they should stand up for what they believe in no matter the consequences because it is not just one individual they are protesting for they are protesting for the well-being of a nation. Thoreau says ?to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.? People should only let wrong and right be governed by what they believe not the people of the majority. The public should always stand for what is right, stand when they think a government is wrong, and trust in their moral beliefs.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience In The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    All in all, civil disobedience has made many positive changes in the world today. Nevertheless, the end goal or result of any act of civil disobedience is not meant to benefit the individual, but the community as a whole. The ends of such an act should not be a private gain, but a public gain. Just like in The Hunger Games, how Peeta and Katniss remained brave by risking their lives to stand up for their districts.

    Read More

  • Peaceful Resistance In Civil Disobedience

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    Peaceful resistance stands up to the government oppression in a given country. Henry David Thoreau states, in Civil Disobedience, "Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. " The word "expedient" means what is

    Read More

  • Examples Of Transcendentalism

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    In modern day, protesting has become an immense part of politics, and is used to try and better the government based on the ideas of citizens. Whether it’s large protests against Donald Trump like in the past months,

    Read More

More about Civil Disobedience: How Peaceful Resistances Positively Impact A Free Society

Open Document