Civil Disobedience

I agree with Martin Luther King and Gandhi’s views on civil disobedience. I believe that if a certain law is oppressing or harming other, we have a moral obligation to both ourselves and others to break this law. The political and economic systems in our country are far from perfect and easily infected by corruption. We cannot simply follow every single thing we are told to do without question, especially when we feel what we are being asked to carry out is morally wrong. If it’s something that tears down another individual and degrades their human personality, it is not in accordance with Natural Law and should not be followed.

Occupy Wall Street is a good example of civil disobedience. The majority of our population is unhappy with the current economic system and distribution of wealth. In protest, some choose to break certain private property and trespassing laws in order to bring awareness to this issue. Even though the majority of people would like to see things change, the small group of people in who are in power continue to create and endorse laws that keep them there and continue to hold others down. This is clearly not fair or ethical.

I do agree with the idea that an unjust law is not a law at all, because it is usually created to help certain individuals or groups (usually those already in power), rather than helping the society as a whole. These things are unjust and we do not need to accept them. I agree that we still must have respect for the law and comply with whatever punishment the give us for disobeying, because laws are there to protect us and we need to respect that. However, we don’t need to follow ones that we feel are doing more harm than they are good or singling out a specific group of people. Personally, I would rather suffer the punishment for breaking these unjust laws than have to live with myself knowing I followed something I didn’t believe in; this only perpetuates the problem.

I can think of many situations where engaging in civil disobedience would be legitimate. Things like the corrupt economic and political systems: tax breaks for the wealthy while the poor are forced to pay more, corrupt elections, rights being taken away from specific groups like homosexuals and women, segregation of any kind – race, gender, social class, etc; all of these things limit individual freedom and disregard the need for equality. These things are not in accord with Natural Law and require civil disobedience in order for us to achieve the change we feel is necessary.