Civil Disobedience In The 21st Century

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In the past few centuries, civil disobedience has become an accepted way of protesting laws that oppose citizens’ moral beliefs. This is a means of protest in which one peacefully disobeys laws. Although this has become more common within the past century, people have been peacefully protesting for much longer. When one closely examines the effects of peaceful protesting, one can see that it positively impacts free societies.

Peaceful resistance can spread sentiments, causing a larger group of people to believe a certain opinion, thereby spreading awareness of a problem. For example, when Rosa Parks refused to move seats on a bus in Montgomery, her arrest led to a boycott of Montgomery buses. This issue eventually reached the Supreme Court, and segregation on buses was outlawed. This exemplifies how peaceful resistance can lead to the spreading of ideas, which can result in change. In this particular example, one person disobeying a law caused a chain of events to occur that reduced segregation. Since laws are decided based on what a majority believes, in this case the majority of the Supreme Court, they are meant to be for the good of a country, and appeal to as many citizens as possible. Peoples’ beliefs do change over time, however, and stubborn people who are willing to resist unjust laws have the ability to change them. For a free society, this would appear to be beneficial. …show more content…
For example, Edward Snowden revealed the amount of data that the NSA collects. The American public was unaware of this. According to an article in The New Yorker, Snowden “uncovered questionable activities that those in power would rather have kept secret.” Although this was illegal, it did make Americans aware of the activities of the NSA. This example of peaceful resistance shows that one of its benefits is bringing awareness of previously unknown information to a
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