Preview

Examples Of Civil Disobedience Against The World Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
802 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Civil Disobedience Against The World Essay
Civil Disobedience Against the World The year is 1989, and there are people who want change. The yearly cost for AIDS/HIV treatment cost an average of $10,000 a year, which is way too far out of reach. AZT, the only AIDS treatment of that time was making people suffer, and making a fortune over their medication. September 14th, 1989, a small group of protesters who referred to themselves as “ACT UP” (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), stormed into Wall Street, handcuffed themselves to the VIP balcony, and held a sign reading “SELL WELLCOME”, telling the people of Wall Street to sell their Wellcome stock, which is the company that medically sponsors AZT’s overpriced drugs. Shortly after, AZT reduced the drug’s price to $6,400 a year, which was still too much. People might be thinking that this small group of protesters made a difference, and made a big change, but that is not the case. Yes, these protesters shined light on the issue, much more than there was before, but they were not the reason. The reason any small protest might “work” is for one reason: morals. Morales meaning the place at which a certain viewpoint is looked on in modern society. In context, small protests aren’t making the difference, but rather the common morals on the viewpoints that they are protesting for that really make the change. …show more content…
AIDS is a deadly disease, killing an average of 1.1 million people a year, which makes it a “sin on society” to make the treatment cost that high. The issue itself is so wrong, and so frowned upon by society that eventually, someone comes in and says, “Hey, we need to change something”. The reason that large protests work, and small protests don’t is because if a single protest becomes large enough, it becomes a moral, which is the backbone of any

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. (Henry David Thoreau)…

    • 2666 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry David Thoreau, was an unconventional thinker who expressed his ideas about major issues such as war, slavery, wealth, taxes, friendship, vegetarianism, and the lessons that nature can teach. Thoreau was an important transcendentalist writer in the early nineteenth century. During the Mexican American war, Thoreau refused to pay a poll tax and while he was in a protest against slavery, he was arrested. He was thrown into jail for one night and later writes about how the government could be better. I agree that Thoreau’s ideas about how a government should be more better is a excellent postulation and I would further add the government today in the twenty first century still hasn’t even changed at all.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry David Thoreau takes the motto "A government that governs least governs best" (1) to heart in his essay "Civil Disobedience". Throughout his controversial masterpiece, Thoreau criticizes the government for having too much power and interfering with the American population, but he also blames the governed for mindlessly obeying any law that is passed. Thoreau uses countless literary devices in order to make the touchy opinions presented in "Civil Disobedience" easier to understand and more convincing. Through use of innumerable similes and metaphors, Thoreau makes his arguments and ideas easier to understand, and effectively convinces anyone who reads his essay that the government is "each instant losing some of its integrity" (1), and that it should be done away with immediately.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry David Thoreau sets the tone throughout the document "On Duty of Civil Disobedience" by maintaining a very serious tone. Thoreau states his opinions regarding how the United States government should be run. He also points out how unjust occurrences and regulations stifle the minds of the US citizens.…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On April 29, 1992, the City of Los Angeles was surrounded in a riot in response to the "not guilty" verdicts in the trial of four white Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers accused of unlawfully beating Rodney King. Six days later, when the fires were finally extinguished and the smoke had cleared, "estimates of the material damage done vary between about $800 million and $1 billion, 54 people had been killed, more than 2000 injured, in excess of 800 structures were burned, and about 10,000 people were arrested."(Khalifah 89) The 1992 riots in the City of Los Angeles were arguably the most devastating civil disturbance in the history of the United States.…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry David Thoreau civil disobedience explains the vital reason why there is need to prioritize one's conscience over any requirements of the law. Therefore, he provides a strong view on the need to be quite sure of actions that are undertaken by individuals as opposed to the assumptions that are based on the law. Henry's sentiments, therefore, provides significant criticisms on the American social institutions and policies that were mainly seeking to promote slavery at the time while completely knowing that their actions were not good.…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his essay, called “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau, talks about how He wants a better government. Thoreau states that there should be no government, by saying that he essentially thinks that it will be better without an actual government, and therefore, “when men are prepared for no government, that will be the kind of government which they will have” (part 1, par. 1). So He is saying that the people are the owner of the country, and wants people to rule the country. This ideology is similar to communism and socialism, by the means of a self-govern government, meaning that the government is the people itself. In this sense, He leaves the country to the individuals’ conscience and not wanting the law to rule the country. Thoreau asks that, “Can…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Like-Me Theory

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Therefore, the popularization of viewing AIDS in the context of who was and was not a part of this conceived “general public” is a testament to what Sarah Schulman argues is the “centerpiece of supremacy ideology, the idea that one person’s life is more important than another’s” (The Gentrification of the Mind 47). The “general public” mentality victimized AIDS patients and held them at the mercy of culturally powerful groups, because those groups warranted action and widespread concern. In his speech at an ACT UP demonstration in 1988 activist Vito Russo bluntly addresses the lack of investigation by the media on behalf of people with AIDS : “Reporters all over the country are busy printing government press releases. They don’t give a shit, it isn’t happened to them - the real people, the world famous general public we all hear…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Civil disobedience is a form of protest in which protesters deliberately violate a law” (suber). It is a way for society to reform itself to reflect its current values while maintaining its fundamental ideals. Some may argue civil disobedience is a “slippery slope” leading to anarchy or it cannot be justified in a democracy. Civil disobedience, while not optimum, is a way to accomplish change with the intent of reform and stabilizing communities.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil Disobedience in America There are many traps one can fall into when beginning an essay on civil disobedience. From the quoting of Thoreau, “There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived,” to the Merriam Webster dictionary definition, “the refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government” smoothly guiding the reader into civil disobedience. Thoreau, emphasising the power of the individual, and the definition setting a foundation, highlight different facets of peaceful protest. However, both of these examples, even when woven together in a not-so-witty introduction, fail to recognize the magnitude of the role civil disobedience has played in shaping the modern world. Non-violent civil disobedience comes in many forms, always with the public intention of achieving some sort of government change in a manner not physically harmful to others.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines as a peaceful form of political protest. During the time period in which the film SELMA was based, Civil Disobedience was mostly used when protesting colored people's rights to vote. In today’s society, one of the most controversial topics in America, is Abortion. Both abortion and the voting rights of colored people have been, and are still, two of the most controversial topics in America today. Many people believe that there are only two sides to every argument.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The resolution I have been researching for the past month is “Resolved: Civil Disobedience in a Democracy is morally justified.” Although there is no single, agreed upon definition, many definitions are similar. Civil disobedience is usually defined along the lines of refusing to obey certain rules and laws as a form of non-violent protest of an unjust law, or any law that one opposes, and is often done to bring attention to said law. Through my research, I have found a number of arguments for civil disobedience within a democracy, as well as arguments against it.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For many years people have been taking and having to follow laws may they be just or unjust. A natural response for every individual if not most, is to simply go along with these laws. However, there is a debate on whether we should challenge these laws through civil disobedience or not. Ultimately, it is the duty of moral citizens to engage in immediate civil disobedience in response to recent police shootings, which can be can be considered an abuse of power by the government.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Hiv/Aids Moral Panic.

    • 1651 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In human societies there will always be issues or problems that occur which cause some form of reaction from those who feel that their values or societal equilibrium is being threatened. Stanley Cohen and Jock Young led the way in explaining the notion of moral panics and how they are formed and their consequences on society. There have been numerous of these moral phenomena over the years, which have gripped society in a vice lock of terror and more often than not, ignorance. This essay will discuss the concept of the moral panic and look at the case of HIV/AIDS which caused a huge conflict of morality within society. This essay will also analyse the failings of health organisations, politicians, and the media and to give an understanding of the causes of this particular moral panic and the effects on society.…

    • 1651 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful 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