2013 Civil Disobedience: The cost of change More than 40‚000 strong activists from the Sierra Club protested at the White House to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. They protested because they the extraction of tar sand oil and moving it from Canada to Texas will pollute the groundwater in the surface (Hammel). Civil disobedience is “the active‚ professed refusal to obey certain laws‚ demands‚ and commands of a government‚ or of an occupying international power” (Civil Disobedience). Throughout
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Civil disobedience is one of the most important rights given to every citizen. Through civil disobedience citizens are able to aperture their feelings against the government and have right to legislate changes that they feel are necessary for the contentment of the entire society. What responsibilities does a virtuous citizen have to follow the law? Socrates in Plato’s “The Crito” and Martin Luther King‚ Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” answer this question from a contradictory perception
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The expectation that every citizens follow the laws and beliefs their government espoused would be a dictatorship. Even within a dictatorship‚ disobedience is prevalent although in more violent ways. In our democracy however‚ the voices of the governed are absolute‚ and when those voices are ignored‚ it is up the citizens to pursue change. Violence should never be the path taken towards change‚ but the deliberate non-violent violation of the law has proven to be an effective way of issuing change
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Civil disobedience is a good thing‚ and indeed a necessary thing‚ until it is no longer civil. Such prominent civil disobedience advocates in our world’s history‚ such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King‚ Jr.‚ understood this principle; this belief in civility amidst disobedience for social justice guided their respected movements. However‚ the argument can be effectively put forth today that such principle is lacking in the modern employments of civil disobedience. Once the understanding of
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Morris I. Leibman was an avid anti-civil disobedience activist. He argued that there is no reason for any citizen to find an excuse to break the law because when people agree to enter society‚ they accept the rules that society establishes. Once you break these laws‚ there is no purpose to society existing in the first place. He argues that if you give leeway to certain circumstances in the law‚ where do you draw the line? In his mind‚ civil disobedience is deplorable and believes it’s the wrong
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Civil disobedience is a form of protest in which protestors deliberately violate a law. Classically‚ they violate the law they are protesting‚ such as segregation or draft laws‚ but sometimes they violate other laws which they find unobjectionable‚ such as trespass or traffic laws. Most activists who perform civil disobedience are scrupulously non-violent‚ and willingly accept legal penalties. The purpose of civil disobedience can be to publicize an unjust law or a just cause; to appeal to the conscience
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Civil Disobedience The incident that happened that Thursday night in downtown Los Angeles is an act of Civil Disobedience. The definition of Civil Disobedience according to the dictionary is‚ “the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy‚ characterized by the employment of such nonviolent techniques as boycotting‚ picketing‚ and nonpayment of taxes.” The incident caused protesters to refuse a certain law by boycotting nonviolently
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believe civil disobedience acheives political success think this is the most successful and effective way for people to get a message across while also creating change. Professor Rawls from MIT supports the fact that civil disobedience is the only option to really achieve success because many other paths to changing the law are closed off. This scholar furthers that there are certain requirements that must be met to create a successful movement. First‚ these acts of civil disobedience must target a
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In the book “ 50 Essays” by Samuel Cohen : “ Civil Disobedience” by Charles Thoreau‚ “Letter from Birmingham” by Martin Luther King Jr.‚ and “ Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy” by Lewis H. Van Dusen Jr. ‚ and with each of these essays they use different ways throughout their essays to persuade the readers. I will be discussing the different appeals that each Author uses to draw in their audience by using ethos‚logos‚pathos‚and Kairos. Each appeal has a different meanings‚ and as well
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said‚ ”Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of people‚ especially when they have no effective voice in their own government‚ but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion.” Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy‚ characterized by the employment of such nonviolent techniques as boycotting‚ picketing‚ and nonpayment of taxes. I believe that civil disobedience is an effective
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