How Does Civil Disobedience Positively Impact A Free Society

iCivil disobedience is the only positive means by which to address the government in a manner that asks not for its submission, but for its respect. Critics of civil disobedience believe that those committing acts of civil disobedience are criminals who have no respect for the law, act selfishly, and will ultimately fail to correct what they believe is “wrong.” This attitude towards civil disobedience is derived from a cynical place that will progressively evoke acts of violence and a complete rejection of law. Enacting change is not always accomplished by negotiations and compromise, as shown by an obstructionist Congress and the animosity between the respective Democratic and Republican parties of today. If compromise can’t be reached, yet civil disobedience is berated and inadmissible, the only option would be to turn to violence. With that said, civil disobedience positively impacts a free society because it allows the people to see past the law and be the judge of what is “right” and “wrong,” it forces the people to consider the “rightfulness” of the set law, and because it
In a Letter from Birmingham Jail, written by Martin Luther King Jr, he responds to a critic, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.” Civil disobedience not only allows the citizens to see past the law and to what is right, it forces them to consider the rightfulness of the standing law. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s wasn’t an effort to create a new law, it was an effort to correct and enact justice on a standing law. It was not used selfishly or in a way to oppress others; it was a call for