Essay On Civil Disobedience

Smriti Patil

1st

Is Civil Disobedience Really a Disobedience, or a Call for Change?

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”, indicating several things: one, moral is more important than the surrounding rules, two, the laws of the government may not always be just, and to be aware of their intended actions, three, to not be afraid of going against what is seemingly right in order to make a difference in the world. Many people in the past have stressed the importance of civil disobedience, such as King, Henry David Thoreau and Arthur Miller in his book The Crucible. In King’s “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”, there is an emotional appeal to the clergymen to join him in

Civil disobedience is apparent in different ways, but plays an important role in society, including making sure the people stay aware of the real issues being faced, to urge people to rethink their

The Socratic Method also encourages debating commonly accepted viewpoints and embracing the grayness of beliefs. When King mentions the “nonviolent gadflies”, he is referring to a court case involving Socrates declaring that in political terms, gadflies stung, or rallied people for to see the truth. By comparing himself, and those with him in the march, to the “nonviolent gadflies,” King establishes that there is a necessary need for civil disobedience awareness that had to be sparked in people through his speeches and marches. Moreover, King labels prejudice and beliefs that the black people are subordinates as “myths and half-truths” and urges the clergymen to notice and join them in an attempt to combat the racism that