To Obey or Disobey

Obedience is an eld old expectation that rulers, priests, and government officials have necessitate for years from their subjects. most(prenominal) of the time respective(prenominal)s chase their leaders without question. This is the encase because the population from which obedience is required look ats that they happen to have a choice. When, for whatever reason this picture is lost, just about several(prenominal)s pass on begin to exhibit an increasing disobedience to the requirement. This practically increases to the luff of violence or, the case of a country, war.While there are all in all types of disobedience, this paper will discuss civil disobedience and the social insistency often associated with it. A good example of this type of cycle offer be arrange in the historical background of the unite States. When the United States was first populated by Europeans it was a colony of Great Britain. over the lead of several decades, the British index imposed a serial of taxes on the colonists. Most colonists felt that they were being taxed without any representation.Over the course of approximately 15 years the protests against the taxes became increasing violent until the Continental recounting was formed in 1775 (History Central). With Thomas Jefferson serving as the writer, the Declaration of emancipation was drafted by the Congress and sent to the big businessman of England. In it, Jefferson wrote, Prudence, indeed, will enjoin that Governments long established should not be multifariousnessd for light and transient causes and because all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, era evils are sufferable than to proper(a) themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. and when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the similar Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such(prenominal) Governm ent, and to provide new Guards for their future security (Ushistory) The Revolutionary War was fought and exemption from British rule was won. Today the population of the United States is expected to pass on taxes. The difference is that batch commit the choice is theirs because of our representative form of government.In the mid 1800s, Henry David Thoreau introduced a new concept that has greatly influenced individuals and sorts desiring change since then. Thoreau spent several years living in a elemental cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. During this time the United States lock allowed slavery. Thoreau was opposed to this. He refused to pay taxes as a form of protest. His business relationship evolved into an essay entitled Civil Disobedience. Basically Thoreau felt that an individual should not support by any means a government that was engaging in acts of which the individual did not agree.He felt that the individual should be willing to suffer the consequences of h is disobedient act, however he/she should neer take a violent stand in defense of his/her belief (Williams). Today Civil Disobedience is considered to be the basis of several juvenile nonviolent resistance movements. It is k presentlyn to have been an inspiration to Mohandas Gandhi, who led the supine resistance movement for the liberation of India from British colonial rule. Thoreaus ideas in addition influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. s Civil Rights movement and the American struggle to force out the Vietnam War (Williams). During the fight for equal rights for Black Americans that took place in the mid-fifties and 60s, Martin Luther King Jr. relied on the principle of civil disobedience compose a century earlier by Thoreau. While incarcerated in the Birmingham, in a letter known as the Letter from the Birmingham Jail, King wrote, Over the past few years I have systematically preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as clarified as the ends we seek.I have tried to make clear that it is unlawful to use lowly means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or peradventure even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends (King). Others followed Dr. Kings example of non-violent protest. One evening in December, 1955, on her way home from her job in downtown capital of Alabama Alabama, a cleaning lady, Rosa Parks, was asked to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus she was riding. She refused. She was arrested and fined. This simple action inspired the Montgomery passel Boycott. By June of 1956, the court declared Alabamas racial sequestration laws for public go through unconstitutional.The city appealed and on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower courts thought. . . The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses ( Bio. True Story). Groups of individuals, when convinced that it is no longer acceptable to adapt to the expectation of the ruler can make historical changes in the piece in which they live. What causes one individual to become disobedient and another to lie obedient to the base rules?Most people trust to moot that they count on for themselves however, when an individual is part of a social group that someone will began to assume the groups ideas and rules. Individuals whitethorn then scrape themselves employed in a struggle in which they do not believe because of the social tweet to fit into a group. Additionally they whitethorn timidity being an outcast. This is especially true if friends or family belong to the same group. Doris Lessing wrote When were in a group, we tend to think as that group does we may even have joined the group to find similar people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group.It is the hardest matter in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group. (724) Universities over time have ma ke a lot of research trying to understand why people obey and disobey. Most people believe they are good and trustworthy. These individuals relish no matter what occurs they will always try to do the right thing in their day to day life. In The Perils of Obedience, Milgram tells of a woman that the last shock she administered to the learner was extremely painful and reiterates that she did not want to be responsible for any harm to him. 695).Despite her desires she unflustered administered the shock, and then being obedient to the soul in charge and not to what she believed. Individuals who still believe in the concept called into question by the disobedient group, often feel intense pressure to maintain loyalty to the old ruling entity. In Doris Lessings article, Group Minds, she states But the majority will continue to insist-speaking metaphorically-that black is white, and after a period of exasperation, irritation, even anger, certainly incomprehension, the nonage will fall into line.Pressure to conform can unornamented itself in another way as well.. Individuals may feel compelled to follow the ideas and rules of someone else and follow that group of people no matter what rails it my lead them down or where those ideas and rules may take them. Social pressure comes from everywhere family, church, friends, jobs, co-workers, and etc.. During the height of the segregation movement in many of the minds of the second there are only two sides in this fight for segregation or against segregation no fence riding.This concept is also apparent(a) during times of conflict. For examples, during the Revolutionary War many colonists remained loyal to Great Britain. British sympathizers were called Tories. They often agreed with the patriots about no taxation without representation. But they cute to solve the dispute in such a way as to remain in the British Empire (US Anabaptists). Following what you believe to be right will have consequences. For example, th ose wanting freedom from England formed a new country and enjoyed many rights and freedoms.All those remaining loyal to the king were considered traitors. Most of the new states passed laws taking away the loyalists property. Patriot mobs attacked prominent Tories. Those found helping the British were imprisoned (US Anabaptists).. Most people want to believe that they think for themselves however, when an individual is part of a social group that person will began to assume the groups ideas and rules. Individuals may then find themselves engage in a struggle in which they do not believe because of the social pressure to fit into a group.Additionally they may fear being an outcast. This is especially true if friends or family belong to the same group. Doris Lessing wrote When were in a group, we tend to think as that group does we may even have joined the group to find like-minded people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group. It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group. (724) In conclusion, it appears that a person is either obedient or disobedient based on the group to which he/she belongs.Inclusion in a particular group may be based on family culture as in the case of those loyal to the King in the Revolutionary War or those engaged in keeping in tact the segregated nature of the atomic number 16 before 1965. Other groups include religious groups, political groups, and special amuse groups. While as a people we may like to believe that we think for ourselves, the facts point in a different direction. It would take a brave person indeed to stand on principles in the formula of objections from the group to which he is most closely associated.Work Citiedhttp//www.historycentral.com/revolt/causes.htmlhttp//abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/ body politic/mlk/letter.htmlhttp//www.anabaptists.org/history/rev-war.html