Preview

Disobedience Against Injustice

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
574 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Disobedience Against Injustice
Progression
Rebelling and disobeying has been a powerful weapon against injustice. we’ve all thought about doing at one point in our lives; people just function that way. If we witness something we don’t believe in, we will stand up against it. Oscar Wilde’s asserts that “the reason we've made progress was and is for the simple fact that the people have rebelled,”; the United States of America is a prime example of progressing through rebellion and disobedience. If it weren’t for rebellion or disobedience against English authority, we would’ve never become the independent nation we are today. Without a doubt, I’m in complete agreement with Wilde. Imagine if people to this day being forced to endure unjust government laws, or if women had little to no rights …. This was once the case , but it changed, through disobedience and rebellion, in order to create a more just United States. Although we may not be to this day have equal rights, this issue is improving and will until everyone is equal. Something as simple as speaking your mind is as an act of rebellion in if it were the past. In the history of our nation, the term “rebellion” became a source of events in the United States past. Nonetheless, society has evolved as a result of it. For instance, we gained our independence from England. They were unfair with their taxes, so we became our own nation by rebelling. Although gaining our freedom was difficult, the United States was insistent on gaining independence from England even if that meant fighting the greatest military of that time. Furthermore, disobedience played a gigantic part to the rescinding of slavery. The slaves, with the help of the North, rebelled against the South and gained their freedom. As a nation, we progressed, not as a result of slavery, since we believed it was morally wrong and working towards the goal of abolishing it. When Wilde stated that progress through rebellion , since we believed something is unjust, he was, in fact,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    We are told that what has been established should remain the same, and if you don’t see eye to eye with this perspective it is regarded as completely wrong, utterly wrong, and for some reason you are completely wrong. Wrong for going against what was already seen as right, but sometimes change is what we need to grow as a society. Two impactful stories gave me the clear vision I needed to establish that disobedience is key for filling in spots in our history books. Stories that impact the past, the present and can even impact the people of tomorrow.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James A. Baldwin, an American novelist and social critic, stated that, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” The right to stand against our country and protest against what’s wrong makes us powerful diverse people. We, the American people, are in charge of our country and we must make her forever progressive and right. Part of this forward motion is civil disobedience. Civil disobedience was used to create our nation, exercise our civilian powers, and is still used today to eradicate benighted ideas and laws.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry David Thoreau was arrested for his refusal to pay a state tax in support of the Mexican-American War. He was opposed to the war because it was intended to expand the slave states. Thoreau not only engaged in civil disobedience, but in his essay “Civil Disobedience”…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To be human is to be disobedient. For good or evil. disobedience has been the one constant, universal trait that characterized human beings since the beginning of time. Behind every great human achievement is an act of disobedience, a rejection of the conventional wisdom, a defiance of authority, or a decision, a choice made to take the path less travelled. History is replete with men and women who by their disobedience changed history, often for the better, though sometimes for the worse.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” said Martin Luther King Jr. The righteousness of revolt is shown by this remark made by a great revolutionary himself. Indeed, so much of justice has been served through revolutions. Gandhi, in India chased the British away through non-violent methods. Marching on, producing salt and breaking the law, Gandhi took a stubborn stance, without violent means, showing that they would not handle the British rule anymore. This established a happier independent India. Similarly, Mandela broke the racial barrier in South Africa, by breaking the law he helped in establishing greater good.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout our history as a free society, countless nonviolent protests have arisen as a means to try to create change. Peaceful protest is not a new concept, even in America. Henry David Thoreau, a Transcendentalist writer in the 19th century, refused to pay taxes because he did not support the Mexican War. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau claims that so many men today blindly follow the government’s wishes and that “in most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense.” Peaceful protest is a way for men to “be men first, and subjects afterward,” expressing their opinions and acting as a catalyst for change in a free state. Without peaceful resistance, there would be little diversity of ideas; the government would control all policy without much regard to minority opinion, and scant progress would be made. Peaceful resistance is a means in which citizens are able to influence the laws and encourage progress. From Thoreau’s time to now, civil disobedience, to put it in Mr. Thoreau’s terms, has played a positive and necessary role in…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This disobedience to reach progressive change can be seen throughout history. People like Rosa Parks stood up for a cause by being disobedient towards the racist laws at play. When Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, she was jailed but her peaceful protest gave rise to the cause of segregation. This was a big issue at this time but…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    America was founded by a semi-organized, angry band of colonies protesting their oppressive mother’s laws. From the Boston Tea Party, to the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr., to the student protests against the Vietnam War, many major turning points in the fabric of America derived from acts of civil disobedience. Without the courageous acts of people willing to accept harsh consequences, these movements would have failed. Without these movements, The United States would not necessarily guarantee the freedoms, like a woman’s right to vote, many Americans take for granted…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Disobedience

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    From a historical standpoint, progress and reform is achieved solely through the valuable human trait of disobedience. The ability for a human to repeal and rebel the social norms of the time period is how Oscar Wilde, an Irish author, would characterize as, “Man’s original Virtue.”…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience is a vital and necessary part of life in a democratic system of government. It serves to keep the government from overstepping its bounds. There are times in the history of countries where the governing body has become complacent and has begun to violate the rights of their citizens. Civil disobedience is an effective way of discouraging and preventing such transgressions. Without the threat of dissidence from the public, there is nothing to keep governments honest except for the honor of those governments, which is highly questionable even in the noblest of nations. The role of elected officials in the United States is to represent their constituents, be they from their district, state, or party. If there is nothing to hold these politicians to this purpose, can we truly be sure they are ruling in a representative way and not in self interest?…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil Disobedience Unjust

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.” As related by Henry David Thoreau, one of the most famous contributors to the concept of civil disobedience, there are some conditions regarding unjust laws that must be changed for the welfare of the people. If this is something the government cannot understand or agree with, it is the responsibility of the people themselves to work to the best of their abilities to change them. Most commonly, this is done through marches, hunger strikes, or sit-ins, all intended to be peaceful and nonviolent, to raise awareness for the cause being protested. Although there are some flaws regarding this system, it is a necessity in our society in order to progress and improve.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout all of human history, the acts brought on by disobedience have pioneered mankind into greatness. After all, it is through disobedience that one can hope to ever accomplish something truly extraordinary, for it is the act of defying authority that often brings about revolution against the unjust and an altered perspective of reality. Disobedience is an essential facet of society—needed to march progressively into a brighter future.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1849, Henry David Thoreau disgusted by slavery and the injustices of the Mexican-American War wrote “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, where he states that civil disobedience is the deliberate defiance of a law to in order to change government policy or enact social reform. Civil disobedience was a major proponent in the women’s suffrage movement, Mohandas Gandhi’s campaign for independence in India, the civil rights movement in the USA, and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa. However there is a school of thought that sees civil disobedience as a major problem due to it seemingly advocating disorder. In most cases peaceful resistance to certain laws can have a positive impact. Civil disobedience has been the platform in which…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Woman's suffrage was made possible with the use of civil disobedience. Segregation laws were abolished with the use of civil disobedience. Same- sex marriage was accomplished with the use of civil disobedience. All these examples make up one answer; Civil disobedience does positively impact a free society.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that peaceful civil disobedience is beneficial to society. The main reason I believe this is because it brings issues to light that the public would not have known about otherwise. It makes headlines, and if it is truly an issue worth changing then the public will make their opinion known and, if things work out, the underlying issue will be solved. The downside being that the civil disobedience may have harmed business or government briefly by breaking the law. I think that the trade off is worth it, even if nothing gets changed the public is still more aware of what is going on in their government, and that is always a good thing. However, if the civil disobedience becomes violent, it basically always has the opposite effect, and…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays