Civil Disobedience Essay Examples

Improved Essays
Civil disobedience is a phenomenon that becomes prevalent in Hong Kong in recent years with the aim to demand changes in government policies through breaching the laws deliberately. Being the breadwinner of my family, I would not take the risk of imprisonment and participate in the social movement which has a high probability in erupting violence. This essay will consider relevant factors and argue that I should not participate in the large-scale civil disobedience because this action violates the Categorical Imperative viewpoint of Kantianism and poses threat with its unknown consequences.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Governments are created by the people to protect their rights. When a government is corrupted and fails to do its job, the people rally against it because it has strayed from its purpose. Many different people have different viewpoints on their government. An excerpt of “Civil Disobedience” shows Henry David Thoreau’s ideal government, and how his current government went against the ideals he believed in. In Chapter Seventeen of “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck explains how the camps of the migrant families create a union and a government, even for one night.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The text above was chosen because it spoke to the message I wanted to impose on my audience. Henry David Thoreau, argues that men should be free from government; I argue that one’s neighborhood heavily impacts the person they become; but we both argue with passion and a confident tone, making us very similar in our approach to argumentative writing. In Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, this passage most encourages me to understand his argument, not because I agree with it, but because it most evokes logos and pathos. Each of these, I would like to evoke within my argument to create passionate, and logical arguments. Thus I speak passionately, to impose with in my writing that I genuinely care about what I write; and I speak confidently to instill a sense of credibility and certainty in my…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a result, Kant proves that civil disobedience is based on morals, which compel the people to disobey the law in a proper manner that not result in loss of property or life (Leopold 2). Morality refers to the wrongs and rights while taking a stand over bad or good. On the other hand, authority is the controlling powers that influence the outcomes of communities, state, or the public (Leopold 1). Civil disobedience refers to the refusal to follow the law or regulations. According to Leopold, civil disobedience is a “personal right to violate the law out of moral obligations (2).…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil Disobedience Civil Disobedience is the refusal to obey any laws, taxes, or any fines without any violent acts. From Thomas Jefferson to Dr. martin Luther King Jr to David Thoreau. Each of these was a different case, but all impacted the world in the same way. Some people believe it keeps the government in check and others believe it shows defiance to the law. Many people like Thoreau believed that unjust laws existed and that the government needed improvement.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty” -Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. argues in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that it is our duty to break a law if it is unfair. King advocates disobeying a country’s prejudice laws in order to avoid immorality. Similarly, Henry David Thoreau argues in “Civil Disobedience” that if a law requires a person to be unjust to another, they should break it.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Malcom X, an American Muslim Minister and rights activist, once said that “You are not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you cannot face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.” He is speaking of a term called civil disobedience, the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of the government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is used by influential “rebels” all over the world and throughout history. Many people have different opinions on whether civil disobedience is important or not.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The general argument made by Henry David Thoreau in his work, Civil Disobedience, is that the government has not been doing it’s job and that the common man should step up for a change. He suggests that that a government in which the majority rule in almost everything cannot possibly be based of off justice. He also says, “ The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” This shows that Thoreau thinks that no matter what laws or government is in control his moral views on such powers will always be higher. It is always the right choice to choose your moral stance rather than following laws just because a higher power put them in place.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Peaceful resistance to laws has the possibility of having a positive or negative impact upon a free society depending on the situation, but throughout history it has been proven that more often than not civil disobedience has brought positive change. It all depends upon circumstance when deciding whether or not something can be good or bad for a society and this includes civil disobedience. While it has impacted our society positively, there are ways for it to be abused by the masses in order for them to get what they want or for the result to turn out as less than desirable, though it is unlikely that it would ever work out that way. For example, Cohen states in Seven Arguments Against Civil Disobedience that one of the arguments…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Civil Disobedience Quotes

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Civil Disobedience Slavery and war have been known to be around for many years. Henry David Thoreau, author of the book Walden and “Civil Disobedience”, wrote “There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them” (Thoreau 270) My interpretation of Thoreau’s quote is that there are many people that disagree with slavery and war, but do nothing to stop it. There are large numbers of people in this world who want to end slavery or want to stop wars. There are also people who want to take a stand and say something, but don't have a solution in how to end it.…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau, the author argues "that government is best when it does not govern at all..government is best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient" (n.pag). Therefore, from this passage readers are able to decide that Thoreau believes that governments are always Practical to have. and sometimes not practical. Additionally, Thoreau continues with "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government" (n.pag). As seen, the author is not calling for no government at all which in my opinion could be misinterpreted from the first quoted passage, but Thoreau is calling for the opposite and simply a better government than he had…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil disobedience is in fact a positive thing in our society. Our founding fathers gave us the 1st amendment right to petition our government. I believe that the founding fathers understood that times change, society progresses, technology advances, and we are an ever changing culture. This is why we call this a living document. It never stays the same.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Robert O’Connor Concord High School New Hampshire Like many things in life, civil disobedience, is all a matter of perspective. Whether it be the Great Muhammad Ali peacefully opposing his selection for the draft or Rosa Parks literally sitting down instead of standing up for what is right on a bus ride home, each and every case of civil disobedience has its ups and downs. Though, when talking about basic human rights, there is no room to be neutral, and that is why peaceful resistance to laws most certainly impacts a society positively. From an optimistic perspective, everything will be alright in the end. Despite Ali’s…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Students should most certainly not walk out of their classes in protest on March 14th. This protest, which has been named the March for Our Lives Protest, is scheduled to occur at 10:00 am on March 14th, 2018. The march is being organized by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, who have supposedly decided to take action against school shootings, which have become commonplace. Even though participating in this protest may seem like a great way to become an activist, there are several problems involved, most of which will be discussed in this essay.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil disobedience reminds everyone that it is individuals’ first moral obligation to do what they accept as true and not to conform to laws dictated to them by the majority. Individual’s moral obligation to stand for what is a right surmise that people should refuse…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A.) Specific Purpose Statement: To persuade my audience that civil disobedience is the right protest to get your point across. I made this my specific purpose because I believe that violent protest distracts what is really going on. In other words people are so focus on being violent than actually accomplishing what they believe in. I am a strong believe that violence is not the key to do things when it comes to protest..…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays