What do you mean by civil disobedience?

Civil disobedience can be defined as refusing to obey a law, a regulation or a power judged unjust in a peaceful manner. Civil disobedience is, therefore, a form of resistance without violence.

How can civil disobedience changed the world?

Civil disobedience can be viewed by many as a weapon against injustice and cruelty. It enables people to help out others by standing up against their oppressors. It gives them an opportunity to allow someone a fair and just chance at life. It allowed people to end slavery in the United States, and wars in Mexico.

Is civil disobedience justified essay?

Civil disobedience is not used to create chaos. It is used to prevent more chaos that is to come. Civil disobedience is justified for many reasons such as moral responsibility, legal attempts to change these unjust laws have failed, and it can be used to publicize an issue.

What are the main ideas of civil disobedience?

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one’s conscience over the dictates of laws. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War.

Why is civil disobedience effective?

Non-violent civil disobedience is effective because it emphasizes a group’s proposed injustice within an institution, while directly appealing to the different ethical systems of individual citizens.

What does Thoreau say in civil disobedience?

Thoreau begins Civil Disobedience by saying that he agrees with the motto, “That government is best which governs least.” Indeed, he says, men will someday be able to have a government that does not govern at all. As it is, government rarely proves useful or efficient.

What does expedient mean in civil disobedience?

He says government is “at best but an expedient” (part 1, par. 1), which means that government can solve a problem or achieve a goal in certain cases, but it cannot do anything more. Thoreau also says that “most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient” (part 1, par. 1).

Why does Thoreau compare the government to a machine?

Thoreau then returns to the metaphor of the government-as-machine. He says that if an injustice is part of the “necessary friction” of the “machine of government,” then it should be left alone. Thoreau then argues that working for change through government takes too much time and requires a person to waste his life.

What should be respected more than the law?

According to Thoreau, what should be respected more than the law? “Must the citizen ever for a moment… resign his conscience to the legislator?” “The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right.”