Civil Disobedience In Mohandas K. Gandhi's On Nonviolent Resistance

The government can’t take away what is rightfully yours; the freedom of speech, as stated in the first amendment and Thoreau obviously used that to his greatest and wisest. Thoreau greatly and with heart encouraged the pacifistic protest- because he doesn’t believe in violence and chaos- and also defending civil liberties. Thoreau’s essay although wasn’t really acknowledge at the time, probably due to the outcry of his powerful speech, but it eventually led up to inspiring other inspiring folk’s civil rights

Chiu Wing Keung (1155048829) Mr. CHOY, Chi Keung GESC2190 Great People and Great Speech 15 Dec 2014 Take Home Examination Question 1 A. Introduction Civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance are significant means for people to fight for what they want for long. By refusing to cooperate, usually with the government, people can use their power to strike for justice and freedom without any use of violence, to change the current unjust situation, to gain what they deserve. In modern societies, which value the importance of human rights, peace, justice and more, nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience are more easily-accepted methods of protest generally. In this essay, these two strategies of protest will be discussed, with Gandhi and Martin Luther King’s uses as examples and a look into Hong Kong’s recent use of civil disobedience.

Later on, by encouraging the people to be united even as they employ peaceful measures to achieve this aim, she expresses her belief in ‘revolutionary change without violence.’ This meant that she believed in strength through unity and the adoption of peaceful bloodless approaches to conflicts. Suu Kyi not only believes in unity and peace but also in the people exercising restraint in their actions. She acknowledges that the movement has grown stronger but urges them to refrain from subjugating those that are weaker. Not only that, she encourages the people to be ‘disciplined’ as well. By stating this, Suu Kyi desires that the people control their actions by choosing not to create any more trouble towards those against them.

People often misunderstand how the right to protest free speech, and democracy works, often thinking in an entitled mentality “free speech is important for me” , the need to protest has increasing over past few years, many people are discontent with the globalization and the government. Protesting is a right, but when used for free speech, it is not always the answer. (state posision) The right to protest is one of basic human rights; however, the right to protest does not allow anyone to destroy the property. The injustices being done by groups does not merit the need more violence. As Martin King said “So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends.

Conflict and wars have taken place all over the world. Something that people forget is that violence is not always the answer to problems. Some conflict can be resolved by peaceful tactics. The phrase, “fight for what you believe in” can be interpreted in many ways. Fighting for what you believe in doesn’t necessarily mean violence.

Do not fear Martial Law, welcome it because in the long run, it is protecting your Constitutional rights. Why are so many not intelligent enough to see that? From what I can see, Martial Law should be hoped for if things become ugly. To not want Martial Law is to say you want to take the law into your own hands.” According to this statement, Martial Law is our future. He is stating that Martial Law will protect our Constitutional rights after all the hardship.

Disobedience is an essential characteristic in this world because without it, no social progress is made. Disobedience can be viewed in a very complex manner because it is in some cases, an unhonorable and disgraceful characteristic, however, Wilde describes disobedience as an honorable attribute for someone to have when social progress is made.. Disobedience should not only be compelled, it should be mandatory. According to Wilde, disobedience is a beneficial characteristic for a person to have, a necessary evil, without it social progression cannot occur. “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue.” This is an appealing quote because disobedience is an unhonorable and disgraceful characteristic, however, Wilde describes disobedience as an honorable attribute for someone to have when social progress is made. Wilde claims “is man's original virtue” as if in order to be a “man” you must fight for what you truly believe in no matter the consequences.

In the text, “Civil Rights Leaders: Martin Luther King Jr., it states, “King eloquently spelled out his theory of nonviolence: Nonviolent action seeks to create a crisis, so that a community is forced to confront the issue and deal with it.” This piece of text evidence reinforces that Martin Luther King was anguished by the violence that was happening and didn’t want the world to be an unsafe and cruel. As a result, MLK spent his time and efforts, trying to rehabilitate society and make a peaceful world for everyone. He wanted people to be kind and peaceful when it came to standing up for themselves. He wanted there to be nonviolent protests and therefore, was resolute in his belief to end a violent and unkind world. MLK thought that if there is no violence, then people will approach an issue and solve it right away without being aggressive.

Civil disobedience is the active, professed opposition to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or conventional violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole. Civil disobedience is sometimes, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is and has been crucial in social change. In other words civil disobedience can be defined as the shape of protest in which the protestors violate a law purposely.

Many view disobedience as partaking in illegal activities such as ingesting drugs, underage drinking, or refusing to do chores as a child after a parent has told them to do so. However, this is only one form of disobedience. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, disobedience is the failure or refusal to obey rules or someone in authority. Sometimes people in power are corrupt and don’t do the moral thing, and people that do not listen to these people in power are doing the right thing. This form of disobedience is good as it keeps individuals safe from unacceptable actions.