Disobedience In The 1920's

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Recently, the news has been littered with headlines such as “The Free Speech-Hate Speech Trade-off” and “Not Just a Knee” regarding college students and NFL players who have decided that it’s time that their side of the argument is not only heard, but also enforced. They have taken to means of disobeying through: protesting for their first amendment rights (college students) and taking a knee during the national anthem in order to call attention to the overlooked issue of police brutality (NFL players). Irish author Oscar Wilde observed that: “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” College students …show more content…
Take into account the French Revolution. French citizens, unhappy with the way in which they were being governed, uprooted institutions such as absolute monarchies and feudalism essentially “redesigning their country’s political landscape.” Chaos aided the citizens in their aim to bulldoze the worn-down foundations on which their country had once been built. The French felt opposed and threatened by their government, feelings which a government was not supposed to generate in its citizens. As tensions rose and the rift between the government and its people grew, the French decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. A prime example of proximate disobedience : they were affected by it at the place they took action and at the time at which they took action. Not only was the situation current, but French citizens also put forth a plan, they clearly identified what was making them unhappy (the cause of their revolution) and then came up with a solution that addressed the cause of their …show more content…
Consider Charlottesville: white supremacists coming together to form a large mob, their intention to push back against the “anti-white climate.” To be heard and seen, that was the plan. Beyond that: nothing. Not only did they have no redress, their message was unclear to the onlookers as well as to themselves. Afraid of being erased from history was one reason that many alt-right protesters mentioned, essentially claiming that the taking down of the Robert E. Lee statue was an ”act of oppression.” Charlottesville can be regarded as the exact opposite of proximate disobedience. The alt-right protestors were not from Charlottesville” many of them flew in or drove hundreds of miles to get there. The situation was not affecting (more offending than affecting) anyone other than alt-rights in Charlottesville. Some may argue that it is, in fact, a matter that affects everyone. However, it had been decided a month before by the town hall that the statue was to be taken down. As well as the fact that the “anti-white climate” which many of the protestors profusely mentioned, particularly Christopher Cantwell, does not exist. Protests and movements against racism are not aimed at attacking all white people but are aimed at calling out the kind of people that marched in Charlottesville. The protest also partly took place at the
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