Assess The Impact Of Peaceful Resistance On A Free Society.

Dennis Rattunde A Lesson in Peaceful Resistance Government is one of the most discussed topics found on the Earth. This is because government controls how the population will live its daily life. However, it is up to the population to agree or disagree with the government’s style of rule. Most often when such issues come to question some kind of movement that is designed to be peaceful comes into play. Although originally peaceful, it is hard to predict what kinds of effects such movements may have on society. After investigation however it can be said that peaceful resistance positively and negatively impacts a free society as demonstrated by Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Brown. Gandhi positively impacted a free society through
In his home country of India Gandhi also inspired peaceful resistance towards British rule which eventually brought about Indian independence. However the path towards such independence was littered with violence as some rebels would take the path of violence rather than non-violence. This caused for only “disobedience” instead of “civil disobedience” so that Gandhi’s peaceful resistance may have begun independence, but it also began violent struggles against the government as well as religion later on (Costly). Although the armed rebellions followed the Jainism path of “self-help”, they did not respect that every human contains a soul to be respected (“Jainism”), and even though Gandhi did not support such actions, his civil disobedience did inspire them so that he had both positive and negative impacts on society. Inspired by Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. also impacted the free society both positively and negatively. King believed that “there are just and there are unjust laws” (“Martin Luther King Jr.”) and that such unjust laws should be
The determination that was expressed in King’s peaceful resistance eventually did lead to the desegregation of the United States. However King also inspired violence (similar to Gandhi) in that the marches would come to “disobedience” at times. For example during the marches in Alabama (which were peaceful at first) the populace came to violence through police instigation on occasions such as “Bloody Sunday” (“Selma to Montgomery March”). These instances show that although beginning with non-violent intentions King’s “civil disobedience” did have negative impacts, however over all it had the positive effect of repealing segregation in the states. Lastly and the least recent of all, John Brown used peaceful resistance to impact society both negatively as well as positively. Brown continually throughout his life was helping African-American families to survive and live a thorough life. Brown did so by donating land, participating in the Underground Railroad, as well as raising an African-American child (“John