what are your thoughts on this? Do you think it is your duty as a citizen to break a law that you feel to be unjust? Or should we just do what we're told because it is the law?
Breaking "unjust" laws
- Thread starter dkwrtw
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Well I'm going to break it anyway, so if somebody wants to call me a visionary or such for doing so, I won't complain.
Errm....well if it's the law you're bound to get punished, however I get where you're coming from, and I don't like every law there is, so I suppose it's understandable that people would break it sometimes.
Well I'm thinking right now, Rosa Parks intentionally broke the law when she refused to give up her seat on that bus, and she is thought of as a hero for it, do you agree with this? Or is breaking the law wrong no matter what?
Oh that. I think that was more a moral choice than her firsthand intending to break the law, she believed she was entitled to a sear on the bus and didn't want to give it up.
That's what I'm talking about, people intentionally breaking laws that they found to be immoral or whatever have led to a lot of positive changes IMO.
But again I mean...it's one's opinion that it's unjust, I don't think you'll ever get everyone saying a law is wrong at the same time. As for Rosa Parks, I mean she was brave enough to stand up for what she believed in (or sat down) but who's to say there wasn't others thinking like that? Surely the black people, at one time or another, thought "this isn't right" but just weren't brave enough to do what she did.
I think i need specifics...
Exactly what I mean, if more of them had stood up to it don't you think that change might have happened sooner?
lol no specifics, just in general if some ridiculous or corrupt law is made do you think people should break the law?
The change would have happened sooner, certainly. Though even without Rosa Parks I think something would have given eventually.
Eventually it might have, or we could still have such laws in place, who knows?
It's all opinion. Rosa Parks is a good example of a law that was eventually found to be unjust but at the time, a lot of people believed those laws were fair. We just think differently now. There are probably plenty of people who didn't like certain laws over time and broke them, but they didn't get recognised for it because those laws were found to be acceptable.
There's probably at least one person somewhere out there for every law, who disagrees with it and in their opinion would be making a moral stand against unfairness if they broke it. I guess if you feel that strongly maybe you just have to go for it, but I don't think you really know how justified you are until after the event.
There's probably at least one person somewhere out there for every law, who disagrees with it and in their opinion would be making a moral stand against unfairness if they broke it. I guess if you feel that strongly maybe you just have to go for it, but I don't think you really know how justified you are until after the event.
what law did she break? I don't think it was a law per se, I thought she was sitting where she wanted and the bus driver made her give up her seat...
I thought it was a law that they had to give up their seat for a white person if the bus was full, I could be wrong about that, she was arrested for it was she not?
she was arrested for the failure to give up her seat, but there was no law on the books.
" Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. "
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
Perhaps that was a bad example lol, still the question remains the same...
Rebellion is the American way. Here's a passage from the Declaration of Independence.
My hat off to Rosa. In my world, she was right. That law/general way of thinking was retarded and needed to go. But I believe in case by case. For example, a racist assassinates Obama. Definitely illegal but he feels him being president is unjust. I, and most probably, disagree.