Civil Disobedience

Civil disobedience is the refusal to adhere to an unjust law, no matter the consequences, as a protest. It is supposed to be conducted without any violence towards their oppressors, showing that what they do is not out of hatred, but out of sincere beliefs and compassion.

Personally, I think this idea is brilliant, but on occasion not practical. I think that civil disobedience is the best way to protest a law in a nation were you cannot be killed for committing a small crime, because if you can be killed for a small crime, the nation is obviously not worth sacrificing yourself for. For example, during the American Civil Rights Movement in the 60's and 70's, few black people were killed for civilly disobeying the law, and those few who were killed were mostly accidents. The majority were simply beaten, which the protesters recovered from quickly. When you come back after being beaten severely and simply continue doing what you were doing before, without any thought to your persecutors, it really pisses them off, and at the same time, ebbs away their resolve.

I’ve never had the pleasure of using civil disobedience for a worthy cause. On occasion when I was little I used to disobey the school teacher just to make a point, but the point was crap and I was too little to understand what was worthy of civil disobedience anyway. I hope to get the opportunity sometime, though. I’ve always wanted to be a part of something so important, being beaten to a pulp didn’t matter, and then being able to put everything on the line for it.