Civil Disobedience Unit
Thoreau, Ghandi and King, Jr.
Understanding
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Civil disobedience:
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The refusal to obey a law on the grounds that the law is immoral or
unjust.
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The goal: to put the issue on public’s agenda, appealing to the
majority’s sense of justice, in order to get the law changed.
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Civil disobedience is public in two ways:
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Disobedience is not done in secret but openly.
Disobedience intended to serve the broad public interest, not
individual self interest.
Be thinking about this question:
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How can disobedience be justified in a democratic political system
where there is recourse to the courts and legislatures as avenues for
change?
Henry David Thoreau
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In the 1840s, he coined the term civil disobedience when he wrote
about being jailed for refusing to pay his poll tax. The tax went to
support the Mexican war, which would extend slave-owning
territory. That, in turn, would give slave states a further edge in
Congress. Thoreau, who strongly opposed slavery, refused to pay
the tax.
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"Must the citizen even for a moment, or in the least degree,
resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a
conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects
afterward.... The only obligation which I have a right to assume is
to do at any time what I think right."
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"I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn."
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"Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your
whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the
majority; ... but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight."
Mohandas Gandhi
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One of the most famous & successful civil disobedients, he successfully led India’s struggle for independence
against British colonial rule. Like Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi placed non-violence at the
heart of his political action.
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His “Quit India” movement after WWII gained momentum with widespread acts of nonviolent civil
disobedience.
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In 1948, the British finally withdrew. That year, Gandhi was assassinated by an extremist Hindu youth.
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Ahimsa: non-violence, not hurting. Also defined as love force,Truth force Satyagraha: clinging to Truth,
insistence on Truth.
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To follow Satyagraha and resist injustice, cruelty, exploitation, oppression and other evils, a person must be
strong. Not the same as passive resistance, which is a weapon of the weak and does not exclude the possible
use of violence.
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Difference between the lawbreaker and the civil disobedient: “The lawbreaker breaks the law surreptitiously
and tries to avoid the penalty, not so the civil resister. He ever obeys the laws of the State to which he
belongs, not out of fear ... but because he considers them to be good for the welfare of society. But there
come occasions, generally rare, when he considers certain laws to be so unjust as to render obedience to
them a dishonor. He then openly and civilly breaks them and quietly suffers the penalty for their breach.”
Important thinkers in civil disobedience
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Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
Thoreau
Leo Tolstoy
Gandhi
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Martin Luther King Jr. relied on civil disobedience in leading the civil rights
movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Steps necessary before acting
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How to distinguish just from unjust laws:
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collection of facts
negotiation
self purification
direct action
Unjust laws are those that apply to minorities who have had no voice in passing them; and
the majority exempts itself. Laws also may be just on their face, but unjust in their
application (as in the denial of a parade permit to the civil rights marchers in
Birmingham).
Dominate views of civil disobedience according to King and Gandhi:
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Willingness to accept punishment
Nonviolent