Freedom Of Speech Vs Civil Disobedience

Improved Essays
In a civilize society people have the right to freedom of speech and expression. Freedom of speech allow people to communicate their thoughts in an educated manner. This freedom creates an instructive environment, where people can express their opinion and exchange ideas. However, the liberty to articulate ideas can produce social tension. In “Martin’s Letter From Birmingham Jail,”Martin Luther King says, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws,”(King 4). In this case freedom of speech becomes a problem because it supports civil disobedience. People who practice civil disobedience tends to get incarcerated, since they don not follow the law. Therefore, order is consider to be more important in society than justice. Civil disobedience

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Elie Wiesel, a writer and Holocaust survivor says during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” This idea states that the act of keeping quiet and not questioning an immoral authority only gives power to the oppressors. By speaking up for what is right, the power is given to the people to repair an unjust government.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made- disobedience and rebellion.” These words spoken from Oscar Wilde explain what has happened over decades. Time and time again, people have gone against the law to do what was right. Not only did it make a small difference, it changed what the future would be like for everyone.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I come a family that has always supported me. Sometimes I worried when my grandparents asked me about high school because it would just turn into me complaining about every little thing. My grandparents listened patiently to every single word I said, and when I finished venting out my frustrations my grandmother asked “And what are you going to do about it?” While I paused in surprise, my grandfather interjected with, “Why don’t you run for President? I’m sure that you aren’t the only one with those concerns.”…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I agree with Caleb Yong article on how free speech is important because he explained how lead each person to form the own ideas and opinion and individualize themselves, and although it can lead to hate speeches there is also speeches that benefit for the better. It’s important for people to speak your opinion and ideas without having to have restriction on how important the matter is to you. Every speech has its negative and positive points but it usually the benefits out weigh the negative factor of the speech. I do think that is very important to keep in mind that every action has its…

    • 1030 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freedom of speech is both right and privilege that we can neither take it for granted nor back away. It’s important to find a middle ground where we can hear one another, where we can debate and disagree with respect. People in America have learn that is good to have an opinion and that you opinion…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Where is the line drawn between civil disobedience and law breaking? In the discussion, there was a general consensus that as long as the cause was "just" it was fine to break the law, but who decides whether the issue is just? What is considered right to one person, may not be the same to another, so the issue is not as black and white as people would like to think. Simplified, I believe if there is an infringement upon a person or group's basic civil rights, then it is just to disobey the law, but only to an extent. The line is drawn when a person is hurt, or it causes a disaster that affects the population haphazardly.…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society as it promotes the creation and the retention of a free country. Free societies are often considered more advanced than the oppressive ones because freedom is something that evolved out of oppression. Now, in the modern world, governments are more or less established, and for them to be changed, the people must act. Civil disobedience is woven through the fabric of the United States. The Revolutionary war granted the underdog colonies independence-- not just independence but freedom.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil Disobedience Thoreau declares, “The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right” (Ogunye). He ostensibly acknowledges no authority other than that of his own moral sense. In this essay, civil disobedience will be defined as the unwillingness to obey civil laws in an attempt to prompt change in governmental law or procedure, demonstrated by the use of nonviolent methods. The matter in question, then, is whether such civil disobedience is justified in a democratic society. The value of this essay’s argument is fairness; that is, defending human rights and granting each his or her due.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In an age where everything is moving in the digital direction, it is vital that we shower not only the streets but also embrace technology and social media in the fight for social justice. People have been protesting for days on end in disapproval of the current state of affairs between the police and citizens, more correctly, citizens who identify as “colored.” I am one of those citizens. I am one of the tens of thousands who was ridiculed and mocked for expressing a second amendment right to civil disobedience. This form of protest is the fixed mindset of Civil Rights activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Andrew Young, which proved successful in their time.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Civil Disobedience Unjust

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Civil Disobedience is the right of a person to oppose a law that one believes is unjust. This is a right of an individual because their actions are a result of their feeling as though a law or regulation isn't just or fair. By peacefully opposing such a law, this person may positively influence a free society, as a demonstration of one's personal beliefs and standing up for their rights. As Rosa Parks stated, "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right", people are encouraged to stand against laws that go against their personal beliefs of justice and equality. The U.S. Constitution supports a freedom of speech, enabling an individual to believe in and state whatever they wish.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Peaceful Resistance

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Peaceful resistance positively affects our society, despite the negative actions that may be unjustly inflicted on those participating in civil disobedience. Peaceful resistance against a law does not harm another individual or infringe on another's rights. According to Henry David Thoreau, "[a]ll men recognize the right to revolution... the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable," a statement that outlines when it is acceptable to break the law peaceably. Acts of civil disobedience are intended to draw attention to an issue and generate a political or social conversation in order to eventually bring justice to the protester in question, such as Rosa Parks' decision to remain in the "whites only" section of a Montgomery bus in 1955. While peaceful resistance does not always have its desired affect or bring about the change desired, many peaceful movements have been able to succeed, perhaps not on the legislative level, but on the moral battleground.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In many recent occurrences, American citizens have demonstrated their ignorance towards the definition of civil disobedience by rioting and looting. In order to protest issues in an effective manner, the definition of civil disobedience must be known. Many high ranking historical and modern day figures tend to agree that civil disobedience must have a just cause, it must be an action that disrupts the status quo in some way, and finally, the civil disobedience must be proportional to the impact of the injustice on the rights and the lives of American citizens. In order for “Civil Disobedience” not to devolve into aimless complaining, the civil disobedience must develop out of an injustice perpetrated on a person, a group of people, or a society.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The denotative meaning of civil disobedience is the refusal to obey laws as a way of forcing the government to do or change something. That "something" is usually a law or policy; but, in reality, how effective is civil disobedience by everyday citizens? Does peaceful resistance to laws positively or negatively impact a free society? The answer is not as clear cut as one might think; indeed, the results of civil disobedience are oftentimes subjective. On December 1, 1955, 42 year old Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Speaking freely and being able to say what people want is taken for granted. To put it another way, many citizens do not realize that this has contributed in making laws and allowing civilians to express what they feel about the government. In some countries, the citizens do not have freedom of speech, and criticizing their government would result by being punished. One country in particular, North Korea, has very few rights and is the most repressive countries in the world (Sargent, Korea). Furthermore, if this right was not created, then the government would have more power than it should.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” In this quote, he explained that authority gains power or “strength” as a result of people being silent. Without people speaking up, the authority will continue with no opposition. Throughout history, America has not been a stranger to tyrannical leaders or governments who abuse power. To directly oppose these governments and take away their authority, prominent leaders have used civil disobedience, or the refusal to comply to unjust powers, and spoke out against the injustices.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays