Civil Disobedience Essays (Examples)

Civil Disobedience
Thoreau's Disobedience

Thoreau's essay on civil disobedience not only gives a startlingly strong argument against paying one's taxes (which is in itself a difficult task), it also gives a subtle but clear image of Thoreau himself. In this essay, the reader discovers a writer who is at once romantic and cynical, idealistically self-sacrificing and fiercely self-centered, areligious and mystical. It would be tempting to portray Thoreau as inconsistent or somehow duplicitous, but it would be more accurate to recognize him as merely complex.

The romantic in Thoreau comes through clearly when he describes his experience in jail, where "It was like traveling into a far country, such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one night... It was to see my native village in the light of the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and visions of knights and…

Civil Disobedience
The Trial of Socrates

The Athenians suffered a crushing defeat in 404 B.C.E. with the end of the Peloponnesian ar. A Spartan occupation force controlled the city, and instituted the rule of the Thirty Tyrants to replace Athenian democracy. hile a form of democracy was reinstated it lacked the acceptance of ideas and freedom of speech that had been such an integral part of Athenian society (Rogers).

In Athens at this time it was the practice of private citizens to bring accusations of unlawful behavior to the attention of government officials. In 399 B.C.E. Socrates was charged with impiety by Meletus, a poet. Laws against impiety were wide-ranging so the charges had to be specified. The indictment against him reads "Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state and introducing other, new divinities. He is also guilty of corrupting the youth. The penalty…

John Locke's social theory not only permits disobedience but also a revolution if the State violates its side of the contract. Martin Luther King, Jr. says that civil disobedience derives from the natural law tradition in that an unjust law is not a law but a perversion of it. He, therefore, sees consenting to obey laws as not extending or including unjust laws.
At present, a new and different form of civil disobedience has developed with the invention of computer technology (Wray 1996). The Critical Art Ensemble's Electronic civil disobedience enables one to travel back to the historic periods of civil disobedience in the U.S. And how it developed through the years. The full potential of electronic civil disobedience has not been explored as a tool in effecting political change. The common opinion or view is that electronic civil disobedience will be go in the same direction. With more and…

Civil Disobedience:
Thoreau's research on civil disobedience puts it as the refusal by the citizens to obey laws or even pay taxes in a country. The end result of the disobedience is normally war, especially when the citizens want to take laws into their hands. The decision by citizens to take the law into their hands forces the government to act forcefully, which results in the war. However, when proper procedures are implemented by the citizens the government takes its course by practicing justice. In countries where citizens work together with the government, their system of ruling becomes excellent and the citizens enjoy their freedom. An example of a state where justice is seen to be practiced is in the United States where the introduction of the right to rebellion brought changes.

Thoreau's main point is that for a better government that upholds and practices justice to the fullest, its…

Pharisaical practices are as popular today as they may be supposed to have been in the time of Christ -- and one of the biggest hypocrisies of our time is what Roosevelt called "the great arsenal of democracy," the shield-phrase with which the U.S. would pursue its policy of "manifest destiny" all over the globe (and an ideology it had been pursuing since the end of the 19th century when a Republican hite House paved the way for all Street to start directing foreign policy) (Jarecki 41). The amount of government waste that is poured into overseas wars in the Middle East would today have Thoreau off in the woods again, lamenting his heart out like a prophet of old. The same callousness with which our government devalues human life for the sake of profit is what Thoreau opposed in "Civil Disobedience": as he himself states, "I quarrel not with…

Regardless, to condemn Brown to death in Thoreau's view demoted the far greater human destruction of life via the institution of enslavement Brown attempted to end. This does not seem so much to be a contradiction or a defense of violence but a tempering of the anger that Brown created in the hearts of many Americans, and an attempt to put the violent acts of Brown in the context of the equally violent actions of slavery.
Perhaps the main contradiction between Thoreau is not his praise of Brown and his advocating of his own pacifist, resistance to the Mexican ar, and the value of civil disobedience, but his condemnation of slavery and praise of populism and a lack of government authority in "Civil Disobedience." The latter work's expressed defense of the popular sentiment as unilaterally guiding the government's will would not have ended slavery in the South. To follow this…

Civil Disobedience
he concept of "Civil Disobedience" was first put forward by the American author, Henry David horeau in his famous essay "Civil Disobedience" initially published in 1849 as "Resistance to Civil Government." Although horeau's essay had little impact in the nineteenth century, his ideas about civil disobedience were put into practice in the twentieth century by leaders such as Mohandas Ghandhi during India's struggle for independence and by Martin Luther King Jr. In the Civil Rights movement by the American blacks.

he concept of "Civil Disobedience" before 1900 was the same as it is now since it has been mainly derived from horeau's initial concept. It usually refers to refusal to obey civil laws and decrees through passive resistance. People who choose to practice civil disobedience deliberately break a law, which they consider as unjust, to bring attention to the injustice. he goal of a civil disobedience act or…

3). For both Thoreau and King, the matter of unjust laws was urgent. In his speech delivered during the March on ashington, King stated, "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality," ("I Have a Dream"). A century earlier, Thoreau advocated the expedient breaking of an unjust law. Of unjust laws Thoreau stated, "if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law," ("Civil Disobedience" Part 2, para. 5).
King draws directly from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," pointing out the urgency to break unjust laws in order to transform the very ethical foundations of the society. "And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro…

I support the idea of sousveillance. I consider surveillance irrational; and sousveillance (being equally but more deliberately; humorously and ironically irrational, in imitating and mirroring surveillance) a valid protest. In my view, purveyors of hierarchal surveillance keep power by falsely convincing us they protect average peoples' interests. The opposite is true. Power for its own sake is nowhere among Aristotle's 'human virtues'. Sousveillance in fact reveals non-virtue in operation by challenging someone's assumed worthiness of power and influence when such people's typically human, often less-than-virtuous behavior is shown.
In today's popular culture, power often falsely equates to virtue. Therefore many will unthinkingly 'follow the leader' [trust blindly]; become 'team players' [never question authority]; 'support the troops' [cheer on America at war, no matter what]; act 'patriotic' [act like a Republican]. This is coercion, not leadership; and coercion leading to peer-pressurized 'group-think' is not virtuous, nor is it rational or the…

Both the British Empire and the American South shared a prejudicial view of minorities. Both set themselves up as superior to those who were forced to obey their laws, and believed that their citizens were inferior due to their race.

Rosa Parks is now known as "the mother of the civil rights movement." Her actions began a series of events which ended much of the inequality faced by African-Americans in the South. Like Gandhi, she took down her oppressors. She thought this of herself, "I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and posterity for all people."

Both Rosa Parks and Gandhi's actions caused significant changes in the social order of the regions which they lived. However, the civil rights movement in the South, despite its successes, has not achieved the monumental success seen in the case of Gandhi. He…

MLK
Martin Luther King penned his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" precisely because his peers in the religious community had criticized his acts of civil disobedience. The letter is a rhetorical argument, rooted in Aristotelian rhetorical strategies. King also relies on a tone that emotionally charged yet rational at the same time, avoiding hyperbole and sarcasm or anything else that would put off his readers. Although King's strategies proved ultimately effective at promoting the cause for Civil Rights, and although King has become enshrined as an American hero, there were and still are still criticisms of King's work. As Marcus Epstein notes, " during the 50s and 60s, the Right almost unanimously opposed the civil rights movement." Critics of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came from two polar opposite sides of politics in America. On the one side were the ignorant bigots who did not see how damaging institutionalized racism had…

Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience"
Henry David Thoreau's essay on "Civil Disobedience" inspired many leaders, spanning from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr., to use nonviolent resistance to enact change. King wrote: "I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau" ("Civil Disobedience," Introduction). In the case of Thoreau, the Transcendentalist author of alden refused to pay taxes to support what he considered to be an unjust conflict, the Mexican-American ar. However, in his essay, Thoreau's argument has far greater implications than a single war, and instead he argues that all forms of collective representation including democratic ones are fundamentally less just and valid than the individual conscience. " This American government -- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one,…

civil disobedience in America. The writer discusses the history of civil disobedience in America and compares it to the current use regarding the war with Iraq. The writer explores several aspects of civil disobedience and how it has changed because of the technological ability currently available. There were five sources used to complete this paper.
The use of civil disobedience in America is a traditional as apple pie. From the inception of this nation residents have used civil disobedience to voice their displeasure at government decisions and government actions. The use of civil disobedience is a right that is protected by the United States constitution. At one time civil disobedience was the only want that attention could be brought to an issue that bothered a group of residents. The television was not invented and the newspapers remained sadly local in their distribution. The gathering and participation of large numbers could…

.. power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. y the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal" ("Martin Luther King's Letter,' Internet). Dr. King's first point concerns unjust laws that appear to have been created to serve the needs of "power groups" at the expense of powerless groups, such as tax breaks on the federal Inheritance Tax which benefits the wealthy. His second point concerns just laws that were created to serve the needs of all citizens and which are obeyed by everyone regardless of social standing, such as laws forbidding murder. In essence, Dr. King is advocating civil unrest against those laws which he sees as unjust.
In contrast to Dr. King's views…

It is an evangelical attempt, generally, to right some wrong or to gain some sort of justice. Examples of social movements include the equal rights movement, the women's movement, and the green movement. While the public is, by far, not completely enraptured by these movements, they tend to engage the action of elites, specialized members of the population, and at least a moderate amount of the general public. They also receive a great deal of attention in academic circles, for the most part. Because the social movement engages the public, however, a component on which the civil society and democracy relies, can they increase or encourage democratization?
Arato and Cohen suggest this is true by discussing the traditional model of the society against the state, among other components. The idea that the society rebels against the state echoes the tradition or rebellion that has traditionally attempted to install democratic rule.…

Oregon Supreme Court lately endorsed a disciplinary damage verdict for trespass stemming from an ecological remonstration. Even though the law at present authorizes disciplinary indemnity for trespass, this Memorandum makes a case that an instruction that permits the adjudicators to reflect on reasons and viewpoints in measuring disciplinary damages for civil disobedience breaches both the United States, as well as, Oregon Constitutions. This memorandum further makes a case that, as an issue of guiding principle, courts ought not to permit disciplinary damages in cases of civil disobedience (1).
The freedoms assured by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution are very important to our social order and of supreme significance. Courts often defend freedom of expression over other goods, as well as, the right to disagree and object is central in the First Amendment's assurances.

On the other hand, the right to remonstration is not unconditional. When "mixed behavior"…

American Studies
Civil Disobedience in American Historical Life and Literature

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love," writes Martin Luther King Junior in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" from his civil rights era protest text, Why We Can't Wait, originally published in 1963 after the successful Birmingham bus boycott. King wrote his letter to his fellow Christian ministers in the spirit and words of a man deeply disappointed in an America that had repeatedly denied African-Americans the right to be full citizens in supposedly a free and just society. King's disappointment and subsequent acts of civil disobedience had its roots in the ultimate paradox that is at the nature of American political life. America is a society founded upon the rule of law as well as custom. The American Constitution enshrines this nation's belief in justice and the rule of the word as the foundation…

Introduction Civil disobedience is defined as a situation in which people take to the streets or act in violation of the law so as to review an issue by the public and the political class. Proponents of the use of civil disobedience say that such minor crimes including blocking roads and occupying public spaces are acceptable if the quest is to resolve an issue of greater magnitude. Serious issues that may call for civil disobedience if the political class does not heed public opinion include war or damaging the environment extensively. The act of civil disobedience involves some form of breach of either the normal practice or the law. It involves infiltration of secret spaces and disruption of the public order. Consequently, the action of civil disobedience is commonly treated as trespass (Brownlee). According to Henry David Thoreau, in his Civil Disobedience, such disobedience as refusing to stand when the…

Colonial Civil Disobedience
In 1765 the conclusion of the Seven Years War had effectively ended French political and cultural influence in North America. England gained massive amounts of land and vastly strengthened its hold on the continent; however the war also had subtler results. It badly eroded the relationship between England and Native Americans, forced Britain into incurring fairly large debts in order to win, and, played a major role in the worsening relationship between England and its colonies that eventually led into the evolutionary War. Prior to the Seven Years War, Britain and France had been in competition for control of most of North America. Britain had an advantage because of its stronger Navy and its ability to encourage its citizens to settle in British colonies through the promise of land and wealth. Furthermore, the British military provided some protection for the colonists who bore virtually no tax burden…

Q3. What was the purpose of Prohibition? Which groups and areas generally supported the movement? Why? The purpose of Prohibition was ostensibly to reduce alcohol-related crimes and the suffering perpetrated by alcoholism on individuals, families (particularly women and children), and society as a whole. The Temperance Movement was widely supported by women’s rights activists and abolitionists throughout its existence. Yet it was largely made up of rural, native-born Protestants and there was also a strong anti-immigrant sentiment within the movement. The virulently racist Klu Klux Klan, for example, also supported Prohibition.
In urban locations, the sentiment towards Prohibition was far different. In general, religion was less influential in cities, and many people profited from selling alcohol. Also, for European immigrants, particularly those from Catholic countries, alcohol had a very important place in their cultural worldview. Although Prohibition may have seemed like a benign attempt to protect women and children from…

Civil ights: The ole of Black Churches
The audience will understand the role that black churches played in the ongoing Civil ights Movement.

In this speech, I will show that black churches -- through methods of advocacy, spiritual leadership and active participation -- play a significant role in the ongoing Civil ights Movement that began in the mid-20th century and clearly continues on into today's times.

Everyone knows of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the important role he played in the Civil ights Movement. But how many people know about or realized that King was one of many black pastors to bring black churches into the Movement, providing leadership, spiritual nourishment, and advocacy to African-Americans struggling for equality? Or that black churches continue today to be part of that ongoing struggle? Just as black churches are making an impact in cities around the country where communities are torn by racial…

American Civil ight Movement
Compare and contrast the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the basis of their leadership, philosophy, and tactics.

Philosophy

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was a civil rights organization that was initiated by African-Americans in 1957 (Fairclough, 2001). The movement was primarily aimed at ending the segregation and discrimination against the black African population in the U.S. The core philosophy of SCLC revolved around to seek civil rights and economic justice for the people of Southern States having majority of African-Americans.

Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) actually aimed achieving same objectives as those of SCLC but through non-violent sit-in and defiance of segregated dining and lunch services. The core philosophy of SNCC was also eliminating segregation but the mission statement was narrower compared to SCLC.

Leadership

The most prominent leader of SCLC was Martin Luther King, Jr. Other prominent…

Board of Education of Topeka. This case represented a watershed for Civil ights and helped to signal an end to segregation because it determined that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" (Warren, 1954). It is essential to note that federal support on this particular issue was only earned after African-Americans decided to use the legislative system to their advantage by taking the segregationist school system of Topeka, Kansas to task. This particular court case was a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 parents whose children were enrolled in the city's school system. This action was highly influential in the African-American struggle for civil rights and to end discrimination because it demonstrated that they had learned the most effective means of fighting this systemic oppression -- by utilizing the system itself, in this instance, the legislative system that ran the country.
By doing so, African-Americans helped to end the…

Popular Film Cultures Have Propelled Civil and Social Rights
Culture is referred as shared interaction, patterns, cognitive constructs, behaviors as well as effective understanding learned through socialization and transferred from one generation to the other. In the United States and outside the United States, films have become a powerful tool to transmit cultures. In 2009, there were more than 6.8 billion films released compared to the world population that was roughly the same number. Moreover, films have produced revenue of more than $30 billion annually, and its impact on films on people's behaviors is staggering. For example, many people across the world are imitating American culture by watching their movies. Moreover, films have become a powerful tool for propelling civil and social rights.[footnoteRef:1] The social civil rights are the class of rights and freedoms people demand from the government, private individuals or social organizations. Civil rights movements protect people from…

Somalia Civil war
SOMALIA- CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WA

Columbia Encyclopedia describes the geographical position of Somalia in these words:

Somalia is directly south of the Arabian Peninsula across the Gulf of Aden. It comprises almost the entire African coast of the Gulf of Aden and a longer stretch on the Indian Ocean. It is bounded on the NW by Djibouti, on the W. By Ethiopia, on the SW by Kenya, and on the S. And E. By the Indian Ocean. Mogadishu is the capital. There are 18 regions. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2000)

Somalia has been ruled by various imperial empires. Some of its earlier rulers were the nations of Oman, Turks and Zanzibar. Most of these nations lost control in Somalia. Britain, France and Italy came to this part of the world in the 19th century. Each country has had a say during its rule. It was…

Thoreau's Resistance To Civil Government
This is a paper discussing the Henry David Thoreau's essay 'Resistance to Civil Government' and arguing that his ideas represent the extreme individualism and anarchist ideology.

The renowned American author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau is considered to be one of the most influential minds in the American thought and literature. Thoreau had not only great influence on American thought but also on the politics of the world, some of his ideas and concepts that he developed were the most original political doctrines devised by American thinker. We appreciate this more, considering the fact that he was an unconventional thinker. At the heart of Thoreau political philosophy was the concept of individualism, he was a supreme individualist and championed the human spirit against materialism and social conformity. His most famous book, "Walden" 1854 is an eloquent account of his experiment in near solitary living in…

S. responded to the Great Depression by electing FDR, who brought out his Alphabet Programs which were supposed to put the nation back to work with public works projects. When that failed to restore the economy, the world elected to start with a new war: WWII. Germany had been buried by the Western powers following WWI -- and now the country threatened to assert itself once more. Russia was in the middle of its own revolution: Stalin was liquidating the kulaks and rounding others up and shipping them off to the Gulag. That did not help Russia's economy any more than FDR's Alphabet program -- but it did not matter: war was on the horizon. Japan was being strangled by Western powers: the American military-industrial-congressional complex essentially forced Japan to attack -- and then sat back and let it happen when Japan finally decided to bomb Pearl Harbor. Thus, America…

Freedom and Equality in the 20th century
AN UN-ENDING FIGHT

Two Primary Methods against Segregation Policies

The Civil Rights Movement of African-Americans in the United States, also called the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, consisted of mass actions, aimed at ending racial discrimination and segregation against them (Tavaana, 2015). At the same time, it aimed at acquiring legal recognition and federal protection of their rights as citizens, as enshrined in the Constitution and federal law. The Movement was particularly active in the South between 1954 and 1968 (Tavaana).

The two primary methods used by the Movement in pursuing its ends were non-violent protests and civil disobedience (Tavaana, 2015). These and other campaigns were forms of civil resistance. They triggered crises and induced the holding of meaningful talks between them and government authorities. These initiatives were effective in the federal, state, and local levels of government as well as businesses and communities.…

Civic EngagementThe right to vote is a constitutional one in the US and it was passed by Congress in 1869: it ensured that everyone had the right, regardless of race, creed or color. Yet nearly a century later in the US, people were still being segregated and discriminated against because of race, creed and color. Why? The reason is that the power structure in the US did not want certain types of people voting or having influence or power of their own. It is why many immigrant communities were broken up by federal plans to create new interstate roads. It is why there have only been two Catholic presidents and one black one in the nations more than 200-year history. The US has always been a fundamentally WASP-driven affair, with help from elite (often Jewish) families that dominate banking, finance, and media. There is no room in that paradigm for…

Civil Disobedience
One might think that finding parallels between a Dr. Seuss story and the real-life story of Rosa Parks does not make sense. However, that is less than true as the parallels and commonalities are early and often when it comes to comparing the history of one and the story created on the other. Indeed, civil disobedience has taken on many forms but it is seemingly the least violent yet poignant events that seem to be the most effective. It was something that Martin Luther King Jr. greatly touted and Rosa Park and her refusal to move from her seat was just another example of that. While civil disobedience is sometimes disruptive or otherwise counterproductive, it is a thing of magic when it is done well.

Analysis

To answer the important question first, civil disobedience is basically a means that people use to protest laws that are deemed to…

This is designed to help support individuals who are dealing with financial challenges. The problem is that select amounts of recipients will use as a way to live off of the government. (Wolf, 2005)
How might a socialist and a capitalist government differ in its treatment of the problem of unemployment?

Socialists want to see massive amounts of government spending to create new jobs, training programs and provide unemployment benefits. A capitalist is opposed to these kinds of programs and believes that charities / private enterprises can address these issues.

In your opinion, should the government have the responsibility of providing health care for every citizen? Why or why not?

Yes, the government should provide health care. The reason why is because prices are increasing exponentially and the number of uninsured is rising. These factors are a sign that there is very little competition inside the sector. To address these…

He centers on people's inability to act according to the dictates of their conscience, for the existence of laws and policies rendered society paralyzed and unable to think conscientiously about their actions -- that is, whether the actions they committed were conscientiously right or wrong. Asserting this point, he stated, "Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?... Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward." From this passage, Thoreau stressed the importance of civil society as the primary holder of power and control in the sovereign rather than the individuals who were supposedly given the function to represent civil society (i.e., political leaders and officials).
In "On the duty of civil…

What does this have to do with the rest of paragraph 27?
The individual and the institution of the state cannot flourish when their interests are in competition: one of the 'seeds' must die.

33. In this paragraph, Thoreau talks about how he sees his neighbors in a new light after his night in jail.

After suffering the loss of his liberty, he sees how little his neighbors are willing to risk of their own security to see justice done.

Paraphrase each of these observations:

a. "I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends;"

I saw that the people amongst whom I lived were good in name only -- they spoke about the value of justice, but would not lift a finger to do promote justice.

b. "that their friendship was for summer weather only;"

They did good deeds…

Conflict between Civil Obedience and Moral Freedom (Free ill and Personal Conscience) in the Discourses of Henry Thoreau, Martin Luther King, and Plato
People in societies, upon establishing institutions that provides and maintains order, unity, and peace within the society, are bound together through an agreement. This agreement, termed the "social contract," binds people together to commit subject themselves to the power of the government, where part of an individual's free will is given to it. The government acts as an agent, the representative of the people, in order to ensure that all members of the society comply with the laws of Nature, wherein humans are under obligation to follow.

In effect, the government plays a vital role in ensuring the society that peace, unity, and order are established. Any deviation or disobedience from the laws imposed by the society can result to punishment of the individual. Indeed, social institutions…

Gandhi Influenced Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King Jr. is a historical figure as he helped to win civic liberties and social equality for the Black Americans during the 1950s and 1960s. His approach towards the struggle was based on nonviolent civil disobedience as opposed to armed struggle. In that, he was inspired by the philosophy of nonviolence used by Gandhi to gain independence for India against the British. Despite belonging to two different cultures and historical periods, there is great fundamental similarity in the philosophies of both the leaders. At the same time, King adopts a more active approach and gives relatively less stress on personal suffering and endurance.

hat King adopted from Gandhi's Philosophy

Gandhi initiated the civil disobedience movement against the British rule in the Indian subcontinent. Since the British had military superiority over the local Indian population, Gandhi devised a novel and effective strategy to highlight…

Two, countries or world leaders might act with selfish motives. For instance, genocide might be ignored if that country is a valuable trading partner or a member of a strategic alliance.
Non-Violent Civil Disobedience

Discussion 1: Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. And Nelson Mandela all organized massive movements based on non-violent solutions to major social crises. In each of these cases, non-violent solutions resulted in positive social change. Ghandi secured India's independence from British colonial rule; King bolstered the Civil Rights movement and helped break down institutionalized racism in the United States; and Nelson Mandela fought against apartheid even from within his prison cell. Each of these cases demonstrates the effectiveness of non-violence as a means to secure social change. Moreover, in each of these cases the non-violent movement brought the cause into the public arena. Ghandi, King, and Mandela garnered tremendous support for their causes by refraining from…

Monkey Wrench Gang," by Edward Abbey [...] issue, where does Monkey Wrenching (the type of political activity in the Monkey Wrench Gang) fit into protest politics as a bridge to mass movement politics? Is Monkey Wrenching a part of the fabric of participatory democracy? Monkey Wrenching is clearly extraordinary politics, but does it have a place in our participatory representative democracy?
THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG

Participation in America may seem like a dying art, but every day, thousands of Americans participate in their communities, take care of others, and spout their political beliefs for the betterment of all. From grandmothers who read to children in their local library, to college student protesting the war in Iraq, citizens in America have the right to change the world, one person at a time. Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang" is a novel of participation at its best. The motley gang of four…

Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Locke's views on social contracts. Specifically it will discuss the structure of law according to Locke and how King's views on civil disobedience and how they related to Locke's views. Both men talk about the types of laws and whether they are social contracts, along with our obligation under law.
John Locke believed laws were central to a civil society, and in fact, they defined civil society. He wrote, "Those who are united into one body, and have a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them, and punish offenders, are in civil society one with another" (Locke 3). He also believed that no one should be exempt from the laws, or a civil society would not exist. Laws are created when civil society elects representatives, who pass laws that act…

Charles Fort's We do not Fear the Father and Louise Edrich's the Lady in the Pink Mustang, what are the metaphors, similes and allegories in these two poems? How do they enhance the meaning of the poem?
A pink car signifies that she wants to be a girly-girly with a simple life, but the car, proud, and different. The car is a mustang, which is a wild, fast, and promiscuous creature. "The sun goes down for hours, taking more of her along than the night leaves with her," reflects the kind of empty work that she does during the night, and that she only belongs to herself in the day time when she is not performing. "It is what she must face every time she is touched, the body disposable as cups." Could the girl in the pink mustang be a stripper, a showgirl, or a prostitute? Regardless, she feels…

ELF
Earth Liberation Front (ELF)

ELF Logo 2009 (Earth Liberation Front, N.d.)

Eco-Terrorism Overview

Examples of Eco-Terrorism Groups

The Earth Liberation Front

If a Tree Falls in the oods: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Documentary)

There are many people and/or groups who claim responsibility for the Earth Liberation Front's (ELF) development. The group is comprised of loosely affiliated or autonomous cells that are only bound by the idea that they can move beyond civil disobedience and accept more contentious tactics for the defense of their environmental causes. This group was one of the groups that helped coined the label of an "eco-terrorist" which later became mainstream label of such types of offenders. The ELF group was considered one of the first eco-terrorist groups and was at one time labeled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the most dangerous domestic terror group in the United States.

This…

Martin Luther King, Jr. And Lewis Van Dusen, Jr. state their respective positions on the feasibility of civil disobedience. Each argument is eloquent, well-organized, impassioned, and thorough. Martin Luther King, Jr. asserts that civil disobedience is an absolute necessity to achieve the aims of the civil rights movement, while Lewis Van Dusen, Jr. claims that civil disobedience subverts the democratic process and can potentially lead to violence. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find weaknesses in King's actual argument: his position is supported with historical fact, personal experience, and ethics. He challenges the status quo, which is always irksome, but his argument is sound. Van Dusen, while he has a point about the destructive consequences of mob mentality, fails to understand the ingrained prejudices in the democratic system he holds so dear. Martin Luther King, Jr. And Lewis Van Dusen, Jr. disagree on several levels, the most fundamental of…

Thoreau and Locke acknowledge the right of the people to renounce their allegiance to their government, what is the difference between their understandings of this right and what different conditions would warrant such an act?
When do citizens have the right to throw off the yoke of a sovereign and adopt a new form of governance that is more in keeping with the wishes and their needs of the majority of the populace? During the age of the Enlightenment in Great Britain, the philosopher John Locke wrote in his "Second Treatise of Governance," that all governments of the world must protect the life, liberty, and property rights of the common citizens. Locke wrote that if a government fails to honor this function, then its citizens had the right to revolt against the government, as the social contract between the governed and the government was not being honored. For example, if…

Suffrage
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Amelia Bloomer were all instrumental in shifting the status of women in American society. Their writings reveal the personalities, assumptions, and values of the authors. Each of these women took incredible personal risks by challenging the underlying assumptions in the society that women were not valid, valuable members of society. The place of women in American society prior to suffrage was no better than domestic servitude. Anthony forever aligns herself with the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., by using the technique civil disobedience to achieve social justice. Each of these women recognized the connection between slavery of African-Americans and slavery of women. They each fought for abolition as well as suffrage, and therefore understood that women's rights were human rights.

When Anthony, Stanton, and Bloomer fought for equality, they did so in a time when more than fifty percent…

Henry Thoreau and Ralph Emerson were two of the romantic American writers of the transcendentalist movement, which in essence stresses that less is more, that nature is to be studied, to be a true intellect you must read the classics and that living a life off the beaten path is more satisfying than one on the beaten path. Though Emerson began his writings first, Thoreau and Emerson are both credited with this movement. Emerson was clearly the founder of this initial movement, but Thoreau's writings were also critically acclaimed. The publishing of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience (1849) and alden (1854) followed the 1837 commencement speech of Emerson entitled "The American Scholar" and the 1841 essay "Self-Reliance." The similar views of these two men and their principles for living are seen throughout their respective works though it can be said that Thoreau applied Emerson's beliefs to his own.
"The American Scholar" was…

Their philosophy was that immoral laws could be changed through the constitutional process and that even non-violent and civil disobedience was a form of lawlessness and that it is not acceptable to violate any laws even to achieve justice.
5.) According to Zinn, what were the achievements of the Civil Rights era and what has yet to be achieved?

Zinn acknowledges that the United States made tremendous progress in racism. However, he also warns that there are still many remaining areas of inequality between white and black society that have lasted much longer. In almost every measure of the quality of life, black people have fewer advantages than white people and they still face prejudice and discrimination. Zinn suggests that there is still a substantial amount of racism in the country that exists on more subtle levels that, in some ways makes it harder to address effectively.

1.) What is…

Mexi War
The term "manifest destiny" was coined by John L. O'Sullivan during the administration of President James Knox Polk in the middle of the 19th century. However, the concept of manifest destiny seemed to have guided the original settling of the European colonies in North America, with the accompanying sense of entitlement to the lands and people therein. Manifest destiny suggested that God ordained America to be special, and wanted Americans to conquer and amass as much land as possible. Territorial acquisition became the cornerstone of American politics in the 19th century. Under President Polk, the boundaries of the United States stretched as far as they could possibly go, warranting war with a neighboring state: Mexico. Therefore, the events leading up to the Mexican War were directly linked to the overall concept of Manifest Destiny.

However, there were other precursors to the Mexican War. ebellions in California led to…

King did not stray from the moral imperative of ahimsa, doing no harm.
Moreover, King knew that his civil rights campaign was grounded in the same philosophies that kick-started the union. Locke noted, "All men may be restrained from invading others rights, and from doing hurt to one another,' (Chapter 2, section 7). So long as no harm is done, each individual has the right to act as he or she pleases. King was trying to point out that "all men may be restrained from" harming African-Americans. Discrimination had become part of the American experience. Depriving African-Americans of their rights to vote, to have access to social, political, and economic resources: these are acts that are directly harming human beings. Alluding to the Declaration of Independence, King echoed the passage, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator…

If somebody has been accused of something that is punishable whether civilly or criminally, he will do everything just to be able to surpass the trial, even resorting to escape.
Concerning the value of the law, Socrates has shown his strong standpoint about respect to its decisions. For him, if one has the ability to choose whether to obey a law, then it is a way of destroying the power of the law. He considered disobeying the law as unjust because the people and the law should go together. The law will not exist without the people and vice versa. If he will escape, then, he will disobey the law. He believed that this will bring him in a wobbly position in his life after death. Again, if we are going to read the New Testament, the duties towards state authorities is mentioned in Romans 13:1-7,

Everyone must obey state…

Thoreau, Stowe, Melville and Douglas: Reflections on Slavery
Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beacher Stowe, Herman Melville and Fredrick Douglass all opposed the intuition of slavery in the United States in the middle of the nineteen century. This matter deeply divided the nation and ultimately led to the Civil ar in 1860. hile southerner's saw the matter as a state's rights issue, abolitions framed the debate from a moral perspective. Most people in the south felt that slaves were their property, and it was for them to decide the moral and religious right of the slavery question. They saw the abolition of slavery as a threat to their very way of life. Abolitionists believed there was no distinction between slavery and liberty, a nation that condoned slavery could not be truly free (Foner). Each of these writers presented their views of slavery in there literary works.

Discussion

Henry David Thoreau

On…

' However, ill-tempered is a somewhat subjective judgment, given that the protestors of the civil rights era were likely to be judged as similarly 'ill tempered' by those who opposed African-American legal parity with whites. King's claim of lovingly breaking the law did not mean that he joyously accepted his punishment of jail time for exercising his rights in the segregated south: King may have embraced his punishment because of his hopes for change, not out of some sort of self-abnegating humility. The civil rights movement was about self-assertion of one's rights. The love in his heart came from his hope for the possibility of change. This did not mean, just like contemporary groups, that he was not outraged by his jailing and the violent actions of the police against civil rights demonstrators.
But James J. Lopach and Jean A. Luckowski seem to have another agenda: their distaste for the…

Ethics
"That government is best which governs least," (Thoreau). The opening line of Civil Disobedience testifies to the importance of individual enlightenment over blind conformity. Government should ideally be by the people and for the people. Laws are often arbitrary and reflect outmoded social norms. In Crito, Plato foresees centuries of government oppression of the people via unjust laws. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela are both figureheads of civil disobedience because they followed the rational and sound examples set by Plato and Thoreau. Like Socrates in Crito, Martin Luther King understands that anarchy is not the solution to overturning unjust laws. No individual should obey an unjust law. The intelligent individual promotes democratic ideals and self-empowerment rather than acting as a martyr. In fact, obeying an unjust law is akin to perpetuating injustice. It is the duty of every conscious citizen, who is intent on promoting the good life,…

" Real Americans support the right of religious people to worship, and would never base legislation on a religious conviction rather than a conviction based on constitutional rights, constitutional law, and Enlightenment ethics.
American political identity is continually changing also because of the incredible ethnic and cultural diversity within the nation's borders. hen gender, sexual identity, socio-economic class, and other factors are also included in the mix, America's political philosophy is naturally heterogeneous. hen new immigrants enter the United States, they contribute to the common ideals of a nation founded on principles like universal liberty and justice. "Debates about immigration and national identity cut to the core of our national self-image as a nation of immigrants, and invariably includes allusions to the past -- real and idealized -- as a way of under- standing and coping with social and demographic changes today," (Segura 278). hite supremacist Americans are currently in…

social commentator, Thomas Frank, has published an insightful article in the February, 2011 issue of Harper's magazine assailing the members of what he describes as the privileges class in America failure to exhibit empathy and understanding for the plight of the working and middle class. In the article, entitled "Servile Disobedience," Frank states, "The rich are different from you and me (T. Frank). They are ruder and less generous. They don't get what others are thinking and apparently they don't really care." In offering these comments, Frank echoes the thoughts offered many years before by the writer and poet, Ralph aldo Emerson. Emerson saw the United States as being infected with "selfishness, fraud and conspiracy (Emerson)."
Frank in his article laments that, "e need the rich to be nicer. e need the rich to discover brotherly love, and fast." He recognizes that among the rich there are a number who…

Mill take issue with the Puritans? Explain.
Famed government theoretician John Stuart Mill took great exception with the Puritans who traveled to the New orld in order to start a community based upon similar fanatical religious beliefs. The reason that he took such issue with the Puritans is that they used religion as a basis of government but worse than this they used that religious intolerance in order to oppress and marginalize others. The Puritans made their laws based upon the assertion that their restriction encouraged moral behavior, but in doing so they took away each person's right to make individual choices. Mill wrote, "ith respect to what is said of the necessity of protecting society from the bad example set to others by the vicious or the self-indulgent; it is true that bad example may have a pernicious effect, especially the example of doing wrong to others with impunity…

Martin Luther King's contribution to the Civil Rights movement in America was certainly significant. He was more than just a figurehead with tremendous oratory skills. As an advocate of non-violent protest he helped formulate, and implement, one of the most important strategies of the Civil Rights era. However, his most important contribution to the Movement was his ability to connect with a majority of Americans. His message concerning injustice and equality swept away divisions based on class or color because he reminded the nation that its very foundations were based on such ideals. Without King's message it is unlikely that history of the Civil Rights Movement would even be recognisable. Consequently, King's contribution to the Civil Rights Movement in America was undoubtable extremely significant.

ibliography

ryant, Nick (Autumn 2006). "lack Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss." The Journal of lacks in Higher Education (53): 60 --…

Clearly, the disadvantages of conducting interviews to interpret history is that often, memories become cloudy and/or lost, and people, as they age, remember things differently. Therefore, some of these memories could be faulty, or at least flawed, and yet, there is no mention of that in the book. There are also quotes in the interviews, and it is hard to imagine that anyone could remember exact words after even 10, 15, or 20 years after the incidents occurred. That means that some of these interviews, although they certainly mean well, could be inconsistent, and that takes away some of the historic notability of this book.

In conclusion, this is a very emotional and personal look into the Civil ights Movement and how it began, grew, and helped obtain equal rights for Black Americans. The author interviewed some of the most influential people in the Civil ights Movement, and their memories…

Modern-Day Corruption and Graft
The Watergate incident that occurred in President Nixon's Administration is exemplary of modern day corruption. Here, the government under Nixon's presidency was recognized to have sanctioned a sequence of confidential monitoring operations conducted by highly-trained agents that was financed by illegal campaign contributions. The seriousness of the incident was such that ichard Nixon had to resign his presidency.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois offered differing philosophies, strategies, and tactics for African-Americans following econstruction. In your opinion, which of these leaders gave the best advice for their times? Why do you feel this way?

Booker T. Washington primarily believed that the approach to deal with the African-Americans after the econstruction was tolerance, adaptation, and self-assistance with maximum attention on the provision of job opportunities for possible advancement of the community W.E.B. Dubois, on the other hand, asserted that the best methodology was the use of campaigning…

The Black Arts Movement refers specifically to the rise of African-American literature in the 1960s. Writer and activist Amiri Baraka started the movement in Harlem in response to the assassination of Malcolm X and actively encouraged black writers to use their voices to tell their stories. The movement went outside of the realm of written art to include theater and other forms of expression. It led to the development of cultural studies programs at universities that focused on the idea that being black in the United States was a different cultural experience than being white, and helped highlight social differences between black and white America.

The Black Student Movement is an organization at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It was established because of Black student dissatisfaction with both the growth of the black student population at the school and the NAACP chapter at the school. It became an…

Television and America
There have been many technological advances within the past sixty years that have fundamentally influenced the way that we live in the United States. Among the most influential is the invention and proliferation of the television.

Though there are other advances which, are equally important it is still the television that dominates the background noise of nearly every home. In fact most homes have more televisions than they have bathrooms. It is not unusual for television to be the single most used avenue for national and international information. "From its early position as a new medium for political coverage in the 1950s, television quickly supplanted radio and eventually newspapers to become by the early 1960s the major source of public information about politics."

This information includes political, social and popular issues that have helped shape the culture of America. It is through the influence of television and…

Mookie's frustrated acts show that violence is sometimes justified as a means of "self-defense," in Malcolm X's words. Bigger did not have access to the words of wisdom of either Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. More importantly, Bigger did not have access to a community of like-minded African-Americans who could sympathize with if not totally condone the use of violence to preserve cultural integrity and pride.
Mookie and Bigger are remarkably similar, proving that little has actually changed for African-Americans in terms of gaining social and political power even after the Civil Rights movement. Richard Wright's novel Native Son illustrates the extent of racial discrimination during the early half of the twentieth century; Spike Lee's movie "Do the Right Thing" reveals the extent of racial discrimination during the latter half of the century. The protagonists in Native Son and "Do the Right Thing" live in different times and…