Civil Disobedience Essay, Research Paper

We are all taught to fight for what we believe in, stick to our goals, make a difference in the world and listen to our conscience. We are also told that we have freedom of speech, however, it seems that is the only bit of freedom we do have. We are not allowed to act on what we believe in, or what we feel is right because the government has control over us. They make the laws that they feel make the world a better place to be, yet are ignoring are own personal pleas. We all have different views on what we personally believe is right or wrong. Sitting around complaining about the world doesn t change anything. The only real way for us to prove that we are dissatisfied with the way government is ruling is to get out there and fight for our beliefs and our rights, through non-violent acts of civil disobedience.

The majority of the world doesn t take a stand for their beliefs because they fear the consequences. We are all guilty of sitting back and watching government take control over our rights. They are acting not on the well being of us as individuals, but on the well being of themselves as government officials. There have been very people that have actually taken a chance and stood up to government, despite the consequences. Henry David Thoreau was one such man. He refused to pay a tax for a priest that he had no connection to with the knowledge that there would be a consequence to such an action. He was thrown in jail overnight until somebody came out and paid the tax for him. Despite what police officials expect when they throw somebody in prison, he did not find it to be a horrible place. Instead he felt free of mind and spirit while in there, knowing that he had stood up for himself and what he believed to be morally unjust. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to nature, it dies; and so a man (Thoreau). Thoreau eventually wrote an essay about Civil Disobedience, which became the basis for many others who set out to take action on what they believed to be morally wrong.

Mohandas Gandhi was another role model for the world in his movement for independence in India. Gandhi was born into a Hindu merchant family and was greatly influenced by the Hinduism and Jainism of his religious mother. After doing a great amount of travelling, Gandhi came to recognize the extent of discrimination against dark-skinned Indians after police officials ordered him to sit at the back of a train when he had a first-class ticket. This was where his protesting began. There came a time when the Boer legislature passed a law making it so all Indians must be registered and fingerprinted with the police. Gandhi and others refused to obey, and he was thrown in prison many times for refusing to comply with what he believed to be unjust laws. In jail Gandhi read the work of Henry David Thoreau, at which time he realized that it would be foolish to give up, and he continued his disputes. Gandhi quickly became a hero in India. His continuous protesting eventually led the government to abolish the unjust tax system. He did not stop there and continued to fight for the people of India, especially after the British government turned fire on the crowds. He was thrown in jail, but it never changed his ways. He was not about to give up until he had gotten through to the British government. He eventually gained the support of many countries around the world. There eventually did come a time when his civil disobedience turned into violence when India became Hindu dominated, but Gandhi just calmly went around attempting to control the aggression and make people see that that was not the answer. He announced that he was going to fast until peace was decided upon, and did so until he became very weak and the Hindu and Muslim leaders pledged peace. In a non-violent conflict there is no rancor left behind and, in the end, the enemies are converted into friends (Gandhi-Constitutional Rights Foundation).

Those who care enough to change the world know the consequences, and accept them, much like Gandhi and Thoreau. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority (Thoreau). In his essay Thoreau tried to make people understand that it takes more than voting to be heard because within voting it is just the majority influenced mainly by the government. If one truly believes something to be morally unjust, they need to act on it. Gandhi did this, despite the many times he faced the cellar wall, he continued for the sake of the people of India. Civil Disobedience does not involve killing, or violence. It is a non-violent way for our views to be heard. There may be consequences, but there are consequences to almost anything. If one man is willing to go out there and make a difference in the world without causing any real harm, then that one man will be a hero forever. Sometimes there is more to life than trying to get through it by just following laws that you don t believe in. I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbour; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to lie aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbours and fellow men (Thoreau). We need respect from our government, and sometimes the only way to get that respect, is to go out there and be heard. So often we can become trapped because that is the way it is , we just sit in the back of the bus . . . that is the way it is here. But never believe that just because that is the way it is — makes it right, or that it can’t be changed tomorrow (TheBook.com)

Works Cited

Thoreau, Henry David. Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience. Online.

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transweb/civil/

Constitutional Rights Foundation. Bill of Rights in Action. Online.

http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria16_3.html#Gandhi

TheBook.com. Civil Disobedience and Non-Violent Action. Online.

http://www.kids-right.org/civil.htm