There are several important takeaways that the author wishes us to absorb from chapter 6 on civil disobedience. The first is that the term \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d is described and defined very broadly by its famous users to incorporate many behaviors. These more famous users include the likes of Henry Thoreau, Ghandi, and MLK. Their definitions range from \u201cto wash one\u2019s hands of [an enormous wrong]\u2026 and not give it practically his support,\u201d to disobeying an \u201cunjust\u201d law because it violates a \u201chigher law,\u201d such as moral conscience, the constitution, or the bible.<\/p>\n
The next point of absorption is that due to this vagueness of terms, civil disobedience can be can be overused, both as a term and a practice, and be employed by both sides of the same argument. This becomes problematic because anything can be rationally justified as civil disobedience and Americans tend to view it as the trademark of a justified cause, which can lead to misconceptions. For example, the author uses the example of pro and anti-abortion demonstrators and how they both use acts of \u201ccivil disobedience.\u201d If I were an American with a positive stigma towards \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d due to our countries history of it, I would not be able to rationally choose, with those definitions, which side of the abortion argument was truly civil disobedience and which one was a protest of a justified practice or non-practice. Also because users of civil disobedience appeal to \u201chigher laws\u201d the users believe, sometimes falsely, that no secular authority can ever disagree with them. In other words, labeling something civil disobedience is highly subjective.<\/p>\n
Next, the author wishes for us to recognize the many instances of successful use of civil disobedience. MLK\u2019s tactics, the story of Lysistrata<\/em>, and Ghandi\u2019s practices are the most famous. The author also wants to point out several characteristics of these usages. The first is people who did not otherwise have voice in society carried them all out. This shows that civil disobedience is often a last resort and a way for an outsider or marginalized person to affect the status quo. After all, \u201cDissidents are unlikely to march outside the White House if the can have a meaningful audience inside.\u201d (114) The second is that civil disobedience was not the cause of the positive results of each movement; civil disobedience was used to generate publicity that eventually got the people who could change the status quos to change them. This is significant because it reveals that even though civil disobedience itself goes outside of a system to affect it, the real actual act of changing the system still comes from within. Thirdly, Civil disobedience is the most effective when the participants have strong emotional or personal connections to each other. I found this interesting because OWS does not have this characteristic.\u00a0 Finally, civil disobedience can be adapted and employed in any number of social movements with good affects, however, they tend to be more successful when they share the above characteristics.<\/p>\n So, keeping in mind the main ideas of this chapter, I was wondering what the forum has to say about civil disobedience and anything else the chapter discussed. Is \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d overused? Do you think Americans have been overexposed to those types of actions and don\u2019t take them as seriously as they once did? Does anyone have good answers for the questions that the book poses on the bottom of page 111? \u201cDo the politics and government of the United States encourage the development of certain kinds of strategies for social movements? Do the dominant strategies change over time? Are there certain kinds of constituencies who will choose to use civil disobedience, or are there certain issue areas for which the tactic is most relevant?\u201d (111)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n -JP Shannon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are several important takeaways that the author wishes us to absorb from chapter 6 on civil disobedience. The first is that the term \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d is described and defined very broadly by its famous users to incorporate many behaviors. … Continue reading