Civil Disobedience Essay
Civil Disobedience Essay When people do not want to obey the law or simply reflect their protest against some regulations that contradict to their life and freedom preferences, they become involved into civil disobedience acts and try to engage as many participants as possible. In a civil disobedience essay, you can discuss how people break laws to reach their targets. During the history course, one can learn about different civil disobedience acts that were carried out to solve unfairness and despair. Please have a look at several types of civil disobedience acts known in the world history.
One of the most known acts of civil disobedience took place in 1930 in India
The primary reason of such disobedience was salt. At that time, Indian government imposed huge taxes on Indian people buying salt imported from the Great Britain. The civil disobedience was headed by Gandhi that protested against such enormous taxes. However, this act ended with drastic consequences – thousands of people were arrested and imprisoned.
The second campaign occurred in Spain. In 1936, a campaign named “Extremadura” took place during the election campaign. People in Spain suffered from landlessness. Peasants could not wait for the decision from new authorities and wanted to capture lands that previously referred to their own property. Another example took place in the US. The primary issue came down to the textile plants and coal mines. People protested against cuts in salaries, which eventually led to the decrease in the workforce and made people leave their work places seeking for the better life.
The fourth civil disobedience protest occurred in France under the name “Dismantling Unwanted Enterprises.” People did not want to allow McDonald’s spread their food throughout the country. Therefore, their disobedience act was based on the hatred towards genetically modified food that would influence the health condition of the whole nation.
Do not forget about the 5th example to be discussed in your civil disobedience essay. It is called “Poll Tax Non-Payment” – an act that took place on March, 1990. People did not want to pay huge taxes that were imposed by the Conservative Party.
Rawls states that people involved in civil disobedience do not impose any danger to the government or the surrounding since they simply want to show their disagreement with the existing laws. At the same time, there are two most common types of civil disobedience acts. The first one is associated with the measures undertaken to prevent the government from implementing unfavorable laws or changing them according to the protest group’s preferences. The second type is associated with the persuasion of the public or society towards accepting some measures.
People do not even expect that many acts of civil disobedience happen on a daily basis in different countries
Many people are engaged in such acts by boycotting some products or services. Others are against some experiments like using animals for testing. For this reason, people refuse to pay taxes, avoid elections, become involved in peaceful acts, etc. Almost every act represents a kind of dissatisfaction with the governmental laws and their implementation.
There are certain ways of protests that contradict to the existing US laws. For example, workers slow down the working process, they refuse to work, they take sick leaves at the same time, they provide free services or lower the price of services, etc. Moreover, sometimes workers allow trespassing on some territories, stating that they should belong to the public and to some private enterprises. In addition, one can find some blockades, marches and similar types of protests.
If you have to write a civil disobedience essay, it is obligatory to mention active and passive types of protesting. Their classification can be found in most of historical publications. Moreover, one should mention possible outcomes of such outcomes. There are three kinds of punishment referring to the disobedience acts. Researchers have named the first type as “deterrence,” which implies preventing the same people from involvement into similar acts. In some instances, deterrence goes along with some fines or even incarceration for several days. The second one is called a “reform.” People involved in the protest should respect the existing laws and do everything possible to become obedient. The third type of punishment is called “retribution.” People should understand that they broke the law and became cruel in some actions. In most cases, incarceration is a typical way out.
People are always unsatisfied with the laws and feel that they are treated unfairly
They think that their protests and braveness would bring some positive consequences into their life. However, governmental laws and regulations cannot please demands of every citizen. Sometimes rebels do not bring any good into people’s life and simply want to diminish governmental control. Their acts are considered as aggressive and arrogant. Therefore, all citizens are encouraged to think wise if it is a good choice to become an active participant of a civil disobedience act, especially if possible consequences are too drastic.
