Preview

Negative Effects Of Civil Disobedience

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
553 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Negative Effects Of Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience has a positive effect on a free society. It allows people to display their rights or beliefs without hurting others. A peaceful protest gets someone’s point across mush more effectively than a violent protest. In a violent protest people point to the protestors and easily take away credibility from the people protesting. The protestors look unintelligent as they resort to violence. The resorting to violence can show that people don’t know how to express their opinions in an intelligent manner. Thus, these people become angry and lash out at others. They make neutral parties angry and lose some people that could become supporters. One example is that the Black Panthers were never as popular than the Freedom Riders. The Freedom …show more content…
When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the Letter from a Birmingham Jail and criticized clergymen who spoke out against the timing of his protests, many Americans backed Dr. King up. His civil disobedience was heard and respected. In Civil Disobedience Mr. Thoreau talks about how it is your duty to fight unjust laws. However, he did not discredit violence. When Thoreau was arrested, he did not use violence to support his beliefs. He did not pay his poll tax because he thought it was going towards supporting the Mexican-American War and the expansion of slavery in the South. This was against his beliefs so he decided to stop paying his poll tax. He protested in a nonviolent manner and accepted the consequences. His beliefs were thoroughly studied by Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi. Both Dr. King and Gandhi used peaceful protests to stand up to oppressive forces and both eded up winning their battle. Dr. King was able to end segregation through the Freedom Riders and Peace Walks. These protests had a positive impact to society and were done with a minimal loss of life. If Dr. King would have used violence to express is beliefs, he probably wouldn’t have won any rights for African Americans. A more current event is the fight for women’s rights. The walks that many people are doing to express their desire to win equal rights between men and women are being done peacefully, and that helps these people get their voices heard. This raises the chances that some rights will be won for

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr, a man made famous by his use of civil disobedience throughout the civil rights movement, displays his viewpoints on the method in Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In the fourth paragraph of the letter, he claims that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", heightening the importance of civil disobedience when it comes to unjust and unfair laws. Later in the letter, he states: "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". King's powerful statements accompanied by the severity of the issues of his time reflect the dire need for civil disobedience when it comes to the evolution of a country and its government. His message and actions exist as a perfect example of how actions such as boycotts, sit-ins. and all other forms of peaceful protest can correlate towards positive…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good 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
  • Good Essays

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing leader and activist for the American civil rights movement. He did not only stand up for African American rights he stood for equality and love. Through the tuff trials and tribulations, he marched with love and for one main purpose which was for to unite all creeds and have equal right despite the pigment of our skin. What Dr. Martin Luther King Jr did was influential, incomprehensible and inspiring to see and hear about. Even though some of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was viewed as unjust I would like to reiterate It was more than necessary to make a bold statement. We will not give in and we will continue to peaceful protest until we have equal and just rights just as Caucasian individuals. From my perspective, if I was in a position such Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was I would choose civil disobedience also.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Civil disobedience is the people’s way to refuse to obey a governmental demands through nonviolent protest. One reason people protest is to further there political agenda. In the book “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau and many others refused to pay taxes because they felt that how the President handled the situation was wrong. They thought it was wrong because President Polk provoked the conflict without getting approval by congress. Also people use civil disobedience to try and change laws or actions that they feel are unjust.…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory 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

    It took years for rights to be expanded to others. One of the greatest examples of civil disobedience to allow for the expansion of civil rights is through Martin Luther King Jr.'s history of protesting segregation against black people. In my early education, I was aware of King's importance to civil rights but never understood what he had to go through in order to create a change. By being introduced to Letter from a Birmingham Jail in high school, I finally recognized that before he had a dream of equality King had to have the action of protest. Throughout his letter, he emphasizes the distinction between just and unjust laws. As King states, "An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law" (King, 1963). Americans must understand that civil disobedience should only be exemplified when there is a moral purpose behind the desire for…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When governments continuously disenfranchise their population by lack of economic opportunity or education, they have a right to revolt against their governments. Both violent and nonviolent protests develop under the same conditions and fight for the same causes, therefore, both forms of civil disobedience are justifiable. Historically, marginalized groups, especially black communities in the United States, have experienced terror by the hands of police for centuries. After centuries of harassment, black communities have taken a stance against the injustices committed by those who are sworn in to protect them. Civil disobedience, whether violent or non-violent, is universally a justifiable method to achieve social change.…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil Disobedience is the act of opposing the law for one's own beliefs. It might cause a storm of arguments, but it is far from wrong. People should not be forced to do things that they think are wrong. And some things helped change America for the better. The right being able to protest against the law is not a idea that is harming society for the worse.…

    • 505 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

    As stressed in Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience is only properly done by those individuals who are ready to accept their punishment, no matter what the cost may be.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience will always positively impact a society that calls itself free, because a free society must allow for dissent. Peaceful resistance to law creates dialogue between people on both sides of the issue.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience is the act of breaking the law as a form of peaceful protest. Some think that it might be ineffective because it takes long or too many people can get hurt, but if you include violence you can make the problem worse and could lose a lot more lives and get more people hurt. I think civil disobedience is an effective way to make change in society. Some ways that civil disobedience is effective is that can fight a bigger power, you can bring attention to the issue without violence, you can also make real change in society without violence. One way that civil disobedience is effective is that you can fight a bigger power.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience is a not a viable way of protesting or showing a disagreement towards the government. Examples of why civil disobedience is a bad strategy to get a point across are how it didn’t help in democracy, it doesn’t usually change what the people are against, and it is not any more effective than other tactics. Civil disobedience did not help in democracy during 1848 until 1920, women had to fight to gain freedom. When quiet protests weren’t enough, they had to find an alternative. Brave women would march in the streets, went on hunger strikes, and even went to jail to gain the right to vote.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By peacefully resisting laws that digress from the principles of a free society, protestors have the ability to draw attention to issues that hinder the development of justice and work to resolve them. Although this can be seen throughout the entirety of the United States' history, it is perhaps most notable in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, the U.S. had long stood as a country that preached equality but practiced segregation. The word "colored" had become synonymous to "second-class" as many African Americans were forced into colored restrooms, colored schools, and colored seating at restaurants. However, through the efforts of thousands of peaceful protestors, the United States began to develop into a country that embraced the idea that "all men are created equal."…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil disobedience has proven in the past, and in more recent events, to be an effective way for people to express their voices to a government that sometimes does not want to hear what is being said. Issues that might be overlooked by the government are brought to light by the people who are trying to do the right thing, and in a society where social media allows us to better communicate an idea, civil disobedience can be proven to have a positive effect. It is the right of the people to alter or abolish a government when it does not meet the need of the people. This was one of John’s Locke belief about a healthy government and why civil disobedience is a way to protest the law without breaking it and it allows people to pay attention to a certain issue. Civil disobedience has impacted the way…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays