Quiz

1
Quiz

• Define civil disobedience in you own words.
• What does too much respect for the law lead to?
• What do you think Thoreau believes to be the
  greatest evil in American society?

2
Civil Disobedience

• First mention of nonviolent resistance
• Used to call attention to injustice by peaceful
  means
• Basically, the refusal to obey laws of a
  government that are considered injust
• Revolutionary because before now, people
  protested fairly violently (i.e. Boston Tea
  Party, John Browns assault on Harpers Ferry)

3
Civil Disobedience

• Government is rarely useful or efficient
• Does not represent the will of the majority, but
  is instead a tool for the betterment of a few.
• Example Mexican-American War
• Government does not do the job it was designed to
  do America is successful in spite of the
  government, not because of it.
• Too much respect for the law leads to injustice,
  as people are unable to discriminate on a case by
  case basis. Everything becomes white or black.
• Americans have the right and the duty to rebel.
• Calls for people to set aside government, live
  without it.
• Real evil is not the people making the decisions,
  but the ones who are content with the status quo,
  those who dont rock the boat.

4
Influence

• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Patented civil rights movement after Thoreaus
  and Gandhis ideas on civil disobedience and
  nonviolent resistance.
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Stood up to British occupation of India
  through organized protests and hunger strikes.
• Nelson Mandela and apartheid demonstrators in
  South Africa

5
Rules for Civil Disobedience

• From Gandhi
• A civil resister will harbour no anger.
• He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
• In so doing he will put up with assaults from the
  opponent, never retaliate but he will not
  submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to
  any order given in anger.
• When any person in authority seeks to arrest a
  civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the
  arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or
  removal of his own property, if any, when it is
  sought to be confiscated by authorities.
• If a civil resister has any property in his
  possession as a trustee, he will refuse to
  surrender it, even though in defending it he
  might lose his life. He will, however, never
  retaliate.
• Retaliation includes swearing and cursing.
• Therefore a civil resister will never insult his
  opponent.
• A civil resister will not salute the Union Jack,
  nor will he insult it or officials, English or
  Indian.
• In the course of the struggle if anyone insults
  an official or commits an assault upon him, a
  civil resister will protect such official or
  officials from the insult or attack even at the
  risk of his life.

6
Sophocles

• Greek playwright and actor
• Also served periodically as a politician,
  general, and priest.
• Born in 495 B.C.
• Wrote 123 plays
• Only seven plays are still in existence all are
  tragedies
• Other plays exist only as fragments
• Most famous plays are
• Oedipus The King
• Oedipus at Colonus (1st play written, 2nd
  chrono.)
• Antigone