Do you think Civil disobedience is acceptable? Why or why not? What instances of civil disobedience are appropriate and to what degree? You may cite evidence from the lesson, reading selections, speeches , or videos to support your response. For help look up the civil disobedience discussed and promoted by Thoreau and Lewis.

 

Civil disobedience is the act of silently refusing to follow the rule of law of the government as a form of a protest if people are seeing some flaws on how the government legislates and governs the citizens. The act was considered as illegal because the government emphasizes that laws are rules to be followed by everyone. 

One example of civil disobedience was when Henry David Thoreau refused to pay taxes as a protest against the Mexican War including the rampant slavery in some of their territories. He did this because he thinks that there is injustice and according to him, the human conscience is greater in determining what is right or wrong than what the laws dictate. Because of this, he was jailed for one night. Anotherxample of civil disobedience was John Lewis who was arrested for forty times because of organizing protests against racist laws and practices. He got beaten and injured for this cause.  

With those examples being said, civil disobedience is acceptable because there is no perfect government and every government will have its own share of flaws and failure in good governance. The citizens who are the direct receiver of these laws should have the freedom and the right to resist if they realize that something is wrong. The government shouldn't expect people to just blindly follow every law that they pass. Because if there is an injustice, people should be given the opportunity to be heard and to fight for what they think is right. After all, the government's job is to ensure the welfare of its citizens.

The only time civil disobedience becomes unacceptable is when it will lead to a lot of casualties. An example of that is civil demonstration held in Sudan because of the rising costs of living which led to a lot of people's deaths. Civil disobedience should be a calm and peaceful resistance of a person or a group of people and no deaths should be involved.