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Similarities Between Civil Disobedience And Letter From Birmingham Jail

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In Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Martin Luther King Jr's, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, both the authors explore their opinions on disobeying government’s rules and standing up for one’s owns rights and going against injustice. Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," is written in the United States during the transcendentalism phase, around the 1837 and 1840's where most of the writers had a liberal viewpoint on topics such as women's rights and criticized the laws of government and industrialization. Most of Thoreau’s works, including “Civil Disobedience”, were inspired by the short amount of time he spent in jail. On the other hand, Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was written more than one hundred years later, in …show more content…

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right." (Jacobus, 306). He argues that it is up to each and every individual to stand up for their own rights and know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong. As said by Thoreau, by committing acts of civil disobedience or peaceful protests, citizens of the nations are able to have their voice to speak up against the wrongdoings of their own government. They bring attention to the more important issues at hand and allow opinions to be formed, and can thus spark change in society. It allows people to be more intellectual, rational, develop opinions on certain important and controversial topics, make them question about certain laws without just blindly following them, understand society as a whole, and altogether help the nation to progress and achieve greater heights of …show more content…

One most popular one is the Parkland shooting in Florida, issues about gun control, the most recent protests in Armenia where many protesters are forcing their ruling elite to step down from their power, and also many other controversial issues regarding the recent Trump era. Inspired by former historical events such as the Salt March, The Freedom March, etcetera, even in this day and age, people all around the world continue to struggle and fight for cases revolving around equality, liberation, racism, sexism etcetera and revolting against oppressive powers, in order to create a better society for all citizens to live

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