Another area of his thinking is that government is symbolic of a ‘machine’, and man should commit non-violent disobedience to ‘gain access to the machine’. Otherwise, the machine will keep on grinding or producing its bad product. These philosophies were part of the foundation of Gandhi’s and Kings’ opinions. Mahatma Gandhi is thought of as leading the pacifist movement to get the British out of his country, India. Many people thought that Gandhi’s philosophy was passive, but he actually refrained from violence towards his oppressors, knowing that he and his followers would receive violence from the oppressors.
Their basic altitudes towards the democracy and nonviolence conflict with each other. King’s own account of his philosophy of nonviolence indicated the extent to which he was influenced by Thoreau’s theoretical framework for thinking about civil disobedience and political obligation. Thoreau has confidence in democracy and the belief of unifying individuals of the society to realize it. However, Nietzsche overtly objected to democratic politics, with thinking that love, freedom and democracy are all the results of recognizing the right. Although democratic practices were on the way in the capitalist countries, he asserted that democratic politics possessed no advancement.
The phrase “civil disobedience” first originated in an essay, “Resistance to Government,” by the American author Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau promoted the idea that citizens have the right to exercise resistance against laws they see as unjust or morally wrong. Civil disobedience allows a citizen to convey his or her thoughts and ideas in a nonviolent way. Antigone conveyed this when she said, “No one will ever convict me for a traitor” Antigone decided to bury her brother, for she was obeying the gods, even though it
was declared illegal by the King, and even though she knew she would be killed for her actions. Antigone believed that the power of the gods was greater than the power of any king.
The Unjust of Just law Ethics 110 22 Jun 2010 In a democratic state it is in never within our rights to break the law. Breaking the law leads to lawlessness and disobedience from the democracy that we have worked, or have been born into. If the law is unjust, then it might be fair to break that law as long as you are willing to suffer the consequences of punishment set aside for that particular unjust law. Failure to adhere to the punishment is unjust as well, for failure to adhere to the punishment of the law is a statement that you do not respect the laws of your society. Martin Luther King Jr. states “Oppressed People cannot remain oppressed forever.” (Cahn, 2009 p. 387) As we have seen throughout history, this is a true statement.
Mahatma Gandhi saw Indians being prosecuted based on their race and racial background. Martin Luther King Jr. saw certain people in southern parts of America being prosecuted for the color of their skin. Both men knew that the only way to stop their prosecutors is by standing up to them. Gandhi believed that the only way to stop the prosecutions was to step up to the government through civil disobedience. Mahatma Gandhi used civil disobedience because he knew that it was the only way that the Indian communities would be able to fight the laws of the Great Britain government.
However, unlike King and Ghandi, Henry Thoreau believed that civil disobedience could be used violently against an unjust government, once even defending a bloody attack on the federal arsenal in 1859. So while King and Gandhi's ideas did differ from Henry Thoreau's, they also had very similar ideas at the same time. They all resisted things that they felt were wrong and stood by it. While Gandhi was working on a concept of nonviolent resistance, he became impressed with Henry Thoreau's idea of disobeying what he felt was wrong after reading Civil Disobedience, while King eventually went on to adapt Gandhi's idea during the Civil Rights Movement, which meant doing it as peacefully as possible. King always paid tribute to Gandhi as one of the most important sources of his own values, while Gandhi used Thoreau’s thoughts in developing “Satyagraha” which is a term that Gandhi used to describe his policy of nonviolent resistance.
Paine used Common Sense as a great tool to let the commoners and less educated to gain some insight on the role and purpose of government. Firstly, Paine makes a distinction between government and society. Paine states: “Society is everything constructive and good that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best.” He goes on to say that “government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, and that a government should be judged solely on the basis of the extent to which it accomplishes this goal.” Basically, Paine is stating to the common people that they have the opportunity to form their own representation of government and do it in a way that truly represents their wants and needs.
Thus, the fear of punishment by sovereign makes promise keeping possible. In his argument for relativism, Hobbes, thus, argues that morality exists only in society and that the people, through a covenant, ensure their security by appointing a leader who will enforce a given moral law.
By voting and being active within our government we can continue limiting the power to our advantage and by involving those who don’t; we can begin creating more citizens that help create a better nation. Thoreau did exactly this, he believed that the government was over expanding their power and taking away natural rights from people based on their aboriginality. He believed that people were followers of one central belief and if you could convince them that what they were doing was wrong, you could sway them to begin a movement. Thoreau saw potential in civil disobedience and by refusing to pay taxes it would stop the funding for slavery.
Traditionally, Hindus and Muslims did not get along. Gandhi's vision was to unify these groups, so that they could stand up and fight the British. Both groups did not like the British ruling their country, but they were both too concerned with fighting each other to rise up and take their country back. Gandhi attempted to unify them by showing them how many of their core beliefs were the same; For example in the movie after it is decided that all Indian citizens should have a day of prayer and fasting, to show the British how much of an effect the Indian people actually have on the county. He said that, "Hindus and Muslims must be unified!".