Differences Between Civil Disobedience And Terrorism

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Fighting Against Legal Authority The Declaration of Independence clearly stated out that government came from people’s consent to be governed and people were given the rights to fight against the government if legal authority was destroying people’s lives. Moreover, it is also people’s duty to overthrow the government if the stability of society is threatened by the governors. However, rebellions developed into two different types during the process of development: civil disobedience and terrorism. These two types have distinct characteristics and people’s opinions about them are quite diverse too. People always feel sympathetic about the protesters when they are talking about civil disobedience. The society regard civil disobedience as the …show more content…
Telling the differences between civil disobedience and terrorism isn’t like telling the differences between black and white. Using only three criteria is oversimplifying the question and more evidences and facts should be taken into consideration. I do understand people’s concern about the insufficiency of these three criteria. However, when I’m trying to distinguish civil disobedience and terrorism, my main purpose is not to prove that these two are totally separated existence. Instead, bringing up the correct reactions toward civil disobedience and terrorism is my primary goal of differentiating them. Humans’ judgements about different rebellions are closely related to judgers’ experiences, education level and their positions in the protest. Therefore, if more criteria are taken into consideration, it will become much more difficult for people to tell the differences. If government can’t correctly identify rebellions as civil disobedience or terrorism, they may take wrong actions against them. To be more specific, civil disobedience can develop into terrorism if government represses them severely and terrorism can lead to huge disasters if government is too gentle for them at first. Therefore, with the help of my three criteria, government can react accurately toward civil disobedience and terrorism …show more content…
Civil disobedience focuses on “civil.” People try to fight against society’s inequality and discrimination by non-violent resistance. They only use violence when they need to defend themselves. Civil disobedience is the fight concerning the welfare of people. On the contrary, terrorism focuses on “terror.” People didn’t start with good purposes. They used violence to scare others and to force them to agree with unfair announcements. However, civil disobedience can become much severer and they may finally become terrorism if the government fails to solve the problems. Therefore, it is extremely important for us to clearly distinguish civil disobedience and terrorism if we want to perform the right reactions toward them. The criteria can help people neglect personal judgements and stay objective, which is crucial for us if we want to learn from the past and have better development in the
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