Civil Disobedience In Society
What is the best way for one to change laws in society? Obviously there are many methods, such as by legally voting on issues. However, another tactic is by means of civil disobedience, in which one protests laws by refusing to obey them. As with other lawbreaking, such actions can harm a nation, but this is not always the case. When it is performed properly, civil disobedience can, as in certain specific cases, help to bring about benefits to society through efficient law reform.
To find out what proper civil disobedience is, one only needs to look as far as the reformer Martin Luther King Jr. In a letter he wrote, this man specifically defined civil disobedience with the words "One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty". Based on that, civil disobedience involves first selecting a law that can be deemed unjust (such as the immoral segregation laws that King spoke out against), disobeying it in a way that others will notice (disobeying it privately would not result in it being changed officially), …show more content…
For instance, Rosa Parks practiced it when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in 1955. She also submitted to the subsequent arrest afterwards, making it true civil disobedience. Another example would be Arizona's SB 1070 law, which allowed police officers in that state to arrest anyone who they suspected of being an illegal alien that could not give identification papers proving otherwise, which some thought to be unjust because it might cause a person to be arrested based on their race. After the law took effect, numerous people intentionally went to government buildings without identification papers in order to protest against it, and endured the resulting arrest as Parks had. While knowing what civil disobedience looks like in reality is important, the results that it brings about are even more crucial to
To find out what proper civil disobedience is, one only needs to look as far as the reformer Martin Luther King Jr. In a letter he wrote, this man specifically defined civil disobedience with the words "One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty". Based on that, civil disobedience involves first selecting a law that can be deemed unjust (such as the immoral segregation laws that King spoke out against), disobeying it in a way that others will notice (disobeying it privately would not result in it being changed officially), …show more content…
For instance, Rosa Parks practiced it when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in 1955. She also submitted to the subsequent arrest afterwards, making it true civil disobedience. Another example would be Arizona's SB 1070 law, which allowed police officers in that state to arrest anyone who they suspected of being an illegal alien that could not give identification papers proving otherwise, which some thought to be unjust because it might cause a person to be arrested based on their race. After the law took effect, numerous people intentionally went to government buildings without identification papers in order to protest against it, and endured the resulting arrest as Parks had. While knowing what civil disobedience looks like in reality is important, the results that it brings about are even more crucial to