Preview

How Does Civil Disobedience Positively Or Negatively Affect Society

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
685 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Civil Disobedience Positively Or Negatively Affect Society
Civil disobedience. This is one of America's greatest pressing issues of today. However, this practice has been involved in our history for many years. The big question is, Does civil disobedience positively or negatively impact our society? Well, I believe there has been a significant amount of negative damage caused from this practice. The idea of peacefully resisting rules we do not agree with sounds nice, until things get violent or taken advantage of. Resistance to follow the rules is not okay in many different situations. Young children must listen to their parents, employees must listen to their bosses, and the American people must listen to laws. We all have different types of guidelines and boundaries. At the same time, we all have different beliefs and ideas. So what should you do if your beliefs differ from that of your authority figures? I believe you can do many different things to make a difference, without breaking the rules. Their are always other ways to handle differences. Peaceful protest can be something positive, until the civil disobedience comes into play. It is perfectly legal to express your opinion to make your voice be heard. Once things go beyond that …show more content…
I respect those Women for standing up for what they believe in. However, once that line is crossed and the law is neglected, it becomes a dangerous situation. If no one followed the laws, we would lose all control and safety in our country. Laws and ideas are taken into effect for a reason, and no matter what your stance is, you need to respectfully follow. Peacefully making a stance means that you need to follow the rules while you attempt to convince a change. As another example, if a teenager does not want to follow his parents rules just because he has different ideas, is that okay? Of course not. If the parents intentions are pure and in the best interest of their child, the child needs to respectfully follow the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    All American citizens give up some of their personal liberties for the good of society: it is the basis of the constitution and every law. When citizens feel a law is unjust, they have two options: follow it or fight it. While the usual method of fighting it involves legal challenges or petitioning legislators, civil disobedience has achieved much notoriety after its famed success during the Civil Rights movement. The Framework for a Free Society describes a free society as one in which government “is constrained by the rule of law under which every individual and entity is treated equally.” A free society stresses toleration and respect of differences in belief and culture. Thus, peaceful resistance positively impacts a free society as it…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the brief time I’ve been driving, I found there to be a drastic difference in driving in the winter and driving in the summer. The winter weather brings many dangerous conditions to contend with on the road that the summer does not. Cold, wet, freezing winters are much harder to drive in than the dryer summer months.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In my opinion, peaceful resistance to laws is a positive impact to society in some ways, while being negative in others. It is okay to use your freedom of speech to talk about issues important to you. For example racism and discrimination. For example, when America was still in its prime of being racist and discriminatory to people of color, Rosa Parks decided to peacefully resist standing up so a white person could take her seat. She knew her action would most likely result in being arrested, but she continued to do it anyway.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Disobedience is a very controversial topic due to the fact that history represents such a wide range of extremities of this ideology. Disobedience can be perceived in many different ways and it can either help or destroy the structure of society. An example of disobedience in society that has proved very successful in the past is civil disobedience. Throughout history, civil disobedience has made a huge impact on the U.S. government and is responsible for several popular social reforms. Many of the world’s most inspirational leaders used civil disobedience to reconstruct society and develop remarkable social change. Examples of these leaders include Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, and Rosa Parks. These people were able to…

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics). Although civil disobedience may cause divisive rhetoric and chaos, nonviolent resistance positively impacts a free society by providing an impetus for progress and starting a dialogue about injustice. Our nation was founded on principles of civil disobedience. In Federalist #51, James Madison proclaimed, “If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Instead, it is up to humankind to ensure that our government protects the rights of all people.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Peaceful resistance to rules and regulations among society goes down historically as something so inevitably iconic as an occurrence known as civil disobedience. It is no doubt that civil disobedience, the act of opposing a law deemed unjust and peacefully disobeying it henceforth, spurs such great controversy in our society. Civil disobedience impacts society in a positive manner that does not hinder nor deteriorate the good name of the just nation that is home, but moreover poses as an influence for what is better accepted by humans as lawful.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout our history as a free society, countless nonviolent protests have arisen as a means to try to create change. Peaceful protest is not a new concept, even in America. Henry David Thoreau, a Transcendentalist writer in the 19th century, refused to pay taxes because he did not support the Mexican War. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau claims that so many men today blindly follow the government’s wishes and that “in most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense.” Peaceful protest is a way for men to “be men first, and subjects afterward,” expressing their opinions and acting as a catalyst for change in a free state. Without peaceful resistance, there would be little diversity of ideas; the government would control all policy without much regard to minority opinion, and scant progress would be made. Peaceful resistance is a means in which citizens are able to influence the laws and encourage progress. From Thoreau’s time to now, civil disobedience, to put it in Mr. Thoreau’s terms, has played a positive and necessary role in…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Peaceful disobedience not only positively impacts our society, but was strongly encouraged and considered necessary in both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration states multiple times that there is a certain social contract that is put in place with a successful government, one where The People give up some of their power for the protection of their basic rights. It is also stated that if these basic rights are not protected, “it is their right, it is their duty” (the people’s) to protest and let the government know. The idea, originating from John Locke, adapted by Thomas Jefferson, states that as people it is not only a right we have but a God-given DUTY. You are a human being, and because of that you were…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Civil disobedience has a positive impact on our free society. By being civil they aren't hurting anybody so there really isn't any harm to it. Like stated by debatewise.com, " Sometimes it's the only way to publicize an issue. " If you are trying to be heard what better way than a peaceful protest. Freedom of speech is also another big deal in civil disobedience because, most of the time a peaceful protest is just a group of angry people screaming and yelling.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most convincing I heard is that civil disobedience can be disrupting to the government and day to day life. Even one of the most used examples of civil disobedience, marching, can potentially have negative effects. People can’t get to their jobs or simply do what they need to do. Sometimes it even causes violence. Disobedients may not participate directly in acts of violence, but there are often unforeseen effects, and violence is one of them. This could have the unintended result of the very thing being protested against being made…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil Disobedience Papers

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Protesting gains much more support, media coverage, and recognition from government officials. In Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” he explains how civil disobedience is more influential than anything else when he says, “Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.” He also states, “I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government”. In this quote he explains how a better government can be achieved when the citizens of a nation take action and stand up for unfair acts of the government by civil disobedience. When the citizens of a nation stand up for what they think is wrong they are “men first, and subjects…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience, positively impacts a free society. Take Martin Luther King, for example, him and many other activists fought for civil rights. His whole fight was non-violent. He would travel around states preaching about equal rights. He was ganged up on numerous times, but never did he start it.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that civil disobedience can have positive impact on society when done in the correct manner. One way that some show their opposition is by assembling, sometimes just in protest, and other times peacefully breaking the law they oppose. For instance, if someone feels that it is unjust that congress made a law against smoking in restaurants a group of people may assemble in the restaurant and smoke. It is our constitutional right to peaceably assemble to retaliate against a law. The “second half of [the first amendment]states that Congress can make no law ‘abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A person cannot go against the law because they feel like it-they need a valid reason. Therefore, the act of civil disobedience is acceptable because it is the obligation of the citizens to fix laws that are unjust, as long as it is done with good reason and peacefully. Firstly, citizens have the moral obligation to disobey any law they feel is unjust. By definition, an unjust law is “a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law” (King, Letter of Birmingham).…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the laws were changed so drastically, civil disobedience was a viable option. On the other hand, People may think that civil disobedience has played significant roles throughout history and that it is best known to work. But with recent changes in society, it does not have the same outcome as…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays