Kings apologetic discussion of the rioting raises troubling questions. Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law rather than a rejection of the system as a whole. Is civil disobedience wrong? - Studybuff In republican governments, wrote James Madison in Federalist No. If it conflicts with the higher law, it cannot be binding as law. To its proponents, led by King, the idea of civil disobedience represents a compelling linkage of morality and efficacy, a happy marriage of moral ends to moral means in the pursuit of social or political reform. [REF] Its present legitimacy and prestige, however, reflect the influence of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, a movement characterized by its leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., as the greatest mass-action crusade for freedom that has ever occurred in American history.[REF] Prompted by that movement, America has undergone sea changes in law and in public sentiment regarding race relations and the antidiscrimination idea, and Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail, containing his most elaborate justification of the practice of civil disobedience, has become a widely anthologized writing and a fixture in U.S. secondary and collegiate civics education. Vanderbilt Law Review His disobedience shows a distrust for the democratic system. Yet, however glorious its historical associations and however appealing it may be on its face, the idea is complicated in its theoretical basis and problematic in its potential practical effects. But this is not all: many theorists argue that civil disobedience is compatible with the moral duty to obey. Nonviolent protest so conceived may or may not involve actions in violation of positive law, but where such protest. As Kings own legacy reveals, however, civil disobedience is complicated in its theoretical basis and problematic in its practical effects. In the definition cited above, the general objective of civil disobedience, to effect a change in laws or government policies, encompasses a variety of possible specific objectives, ranging from reform of particular laws or policies to fundamental change in constitutional order. Pursuant to his own insistence on respect for law, it appears that Kings proper initial recourse in Birmingham was the legal channel of judicial appeal rather than disobedience, and that until legal and political channels for reform proved clearly unavailing, his justification for his actions should have remained within the realm of positive, constitutional law. The very definition of a Republic, John Adams remarked, is an Empire of Laws, and not of menwords he wrote in the spring of 1776, even as his compatriots were engaged in an armed uprising that they as a people, with Adamss own assistance, would shortly thereafter declare to be revolutionary and justified by a law higher than any human law. Hacking as Politically Motivated Civil Disobedience: Is Hacktivism How can civil disobedience be explained and justified so as to foreclose the possibility that it could implicitly license uncivil, non-rightful disobedience, or to ensure that even its legitimate usages will not prove corrosive of the rule of law? To the contrary, it signifies a purposeful encroachment on others rights and interests as members of civil society. He then turned to their specific objection to the tactic of civil disobedience. Thus, civil disobedience may be morally justified, even in a democracy. A lock ( This means that the practitioner of civil disobedience must judge properly in identifying unjust laws as the justification for disobedience. We should explore legal channels first. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free. 10. Bull Connor, the chief lawman, colluded with the Klan so they could carry out bloody mayhem on Freedom Riders. Given the context, it would seem a gross distortion of perspective to see in Kings and his fellow protesters actions a danger to law and order comparable to that posed by pro-segregation extremists.[REF]. This fact, along with the profession of nonviolence, helps explain the mainstream legitimacy accorded such acts, but it also means that civil disobedience so conceived may pose a greater threat to Americas republican constitutional order than would a conception of civil disobedience as an inherently revolutionary practice. Kings awareness of the power of civil disobedience as a protest method quickened in the course of his first nonviolent direct-action campaign, the Montgomery bus boycott, and developed further as he reflected on the sit-in movement initiated by black college students in early 1960. He claims that the government's power is based more on the influence that the majority possesses rather than . A Theory of Civil Disobedience in No Less Than 10 Minutes Recent protesters have been generally heedless of the obligation to compose well-reasoned, empirically careful, rights-based arguments to support the justice of their cause, and their protests have consisted largely in efforts at disruption and coercion rather than persuasion. I have one definition to give. He conceded that it was certainly a legitimate concern. This upsurge appears unlikely soon to abate. . There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham, King reported, than in any other city in the nation. In response, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. By attaching to the practice of civil disobedience the regulatory conditions that he described in the Letter, King helped contain disorders that might otherwise have so expanded as to scuttle the possibility of meaningful reform. Civil Disobedience Essay Examples - Social Movements Something similar was true with respect to the indignations and provocations to which protestors would be subjected, which could be expected often to surpass the limits of the average persons patience. Second, I attempt to identify a reliable . Beginning in the mid-20th century, however, a significant modification of the idea has gained legitimacy and prestige in this country and around the world, as many Americans and others have become persuaded that organized disobedience can be not only rightful and, in a higher sense, lawful, but also, Broadly defined, civil disobedience denotes a public, non-violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies., In his major statement on civil disobedience, the Letter from Birmingham Jail, King wrote that the practitioner of civil disobedience does not disregard or undervalue the rule of law but, to the contrary, express[es] the highest respect for law., Americans simultaneous devotion to law and insistence on a right to disobey unjust laws signifies a fruitful tension in American principles, inherent in our foundational idea of the rule of law. Describing his plan to recruit three thousand of the poorest citizens from various urban and rural areas to participate in a Poor Peoples March on Washington, he indicated that this nonviolent army, this freedom church of the poor, will work with us for three months to develop nonviolent action skills.[REF], Even so, Kings remarks relative to the character and motivations of this newly recruited army suggest that here, too, he departed significantly from his earlier account. Peter Suber, "Civil Disobedience" - Harvard University In a democracy, minority groups have basic rights and alternatives to civil disobedience. The philosopher and sociologist Jrgen Habermas defined civil disobedience as follows: "Civil disobedience is moral justified Protest, which should not only be based on private beliefs or personal interests; he is a more public Act that is usually announced and the course of which can be calculated by the police; he closes the intentional Injury individual . Is civil disobedience justifiable? - mlive.com He lent his moral authority to a radicalized form of civil disobedience that was more likely to sow disrespect than respect for law and more likely to foster division than moral reconciliation. Note that in his call for a more mature form of civil disobedience, he emphasized the exercise of force aimed at interrupting societys functioning at some key point.[REF] In the Letter, King explained civil disobedience as a form of moral suasion, designed to arouse the conscience of the community.[REF] The earlier model of civil disobedience thus contrasts sharply with the model King later proposed, which was not demonstrative or persuasive in character but instead disruptive and coercive and, moreover, targeted not unjust laws but instead just laws necessary to the ordinary functioning of society. Even where it proves necessary to disobey an unjust law, to disobey the law in its entirety may be unnecessary to the purpose of reformand indeed may conflict with that purpose. A corollary of Kings earlier position that civil disobedience may be practiced only where necessary is that such disobedience should cease as soon as possiblei.e., as soon as the necessary reforms are achieved or lawful, political avenues to their achievement become available. is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as "Refusal to obey governmental demands or commands, especially as a nonviolent and usually collective mean. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck goes right through that red light, and normal traffic had better get out of its way . For his own, very different reasons, King, too, judged the first phase of his movement as only a partial and mixed success. Civil disobedience is a nonviolent form of protest. Legitimate, constitutional government can possess only those powers delegated to it by the people who are its constituents, and the people in turn can delegate only powers they rightfully possess under the law of nature. Here, for King, are the primary and overarching conditions of morally sound protest: As a subclass of nonviolent protest, civil disobedience in Kings understanding is marked by: Kings awareness of the power of civil disobedience as a protest method quickened in the course of his first nonviolent direct-action campaign, the Montgomery bus boycott, and developed further as he reflected on the sit-in movement initiated by black college students in early 1960. King departed from his previously held regulatory principles in another, related respect. The eight were not segregationists; they were moderate proponents of gradual integration. In the endeavor to fulfill the law, the would-be reformer must be properly mindful of the danger of destroying it. Judged by its main objectives of reforming the law and strengthening the bonds of moral community, Kings direct-action protest movement of the 1950s and early 1960s appears to have been a resounding success.
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