Civil v. uncivil disobedience - Rhetoric of Social Protest

Civil Disobedience: 

Definition: A nonviolent, public refusal to obey laws that violate an individuals principals

- Protester appeals to political principals to pinpoint the injustice in a given political system
- Acting 'within' the limits of the law
- Often opinion-based "I believe this law is unjust"
- A conservative way to demand a second judgment of a law
- Not looking for ways to break the law- has purpose

Example: 
1.) Martin Luther King Jr. and his speeches and protests that broke the laws, but did so out of purpose to send a message about the injustice of that law.
2.) Rosa Parks not offering her seat up b/c it interfered with her principals.

Text Quote(s):

1.) "Many who currently advocate and practice civil disobedience..... are keenly aware that a lawless society cannot survive, but they are willing to pay whatever penalties the civil law may exact in order to obey what they regard as a higher law, be it the law of their religion or conscience, which requires them to protest what they view as some injustice in their society." (Haiman pg. 17)

2.) "Critics of civil disobedience also need to be reminded that some kinds of law-breaking are, paradoxically, quite legal." (Haiman, pg.17)

3.) "But if one is willing to run the risk of losing that decision (thereby paying the penalty, of course), he is fully justified in such a violation." (Haiman, pg.17)

Uncivil Disobedience: 
Definition: Publicly acting out in defiance, not to improve it or change it, but to be exempted from it... essentially; going out of your way to break the law or challenge authority.

- A resistance to authority
- Extremists; often violent- with no purpose other than to thwart authority and their law

Example: 
1.) Jim Crow acting in defiance of integration. He and his followers did not comply with the rulings and orders of authority. Their purpose was evoke Southern pride and White Supremacy despite the new law of integration.

Text Quote(s): 

1.) "It would seem that even the "rhetoric of the riot," mindless and indiscriminate as it may be, has it's positive function in contemporary America. What moral can be drawn from this, short of abandoning the conviction that a civilized society is preferable to the law of the jungle?" (Haiman, pg. 18)

2.) "This appears to depend on somewhat on the particular circumstances of the law and violation in question. But, despite these qualifications, it is clear that dissenters have no obligation to confrom indefinitely to statutes and ordinances that conflict with the Constitution." (Haiman, pg. 18)

3.) "Perhaps simply that if the channels for peaceful protest and reform become so clogged that they appear to be (and, in fact, may be) inaccessible to some segments of the population, then the Jeffersonian doctrine that "the tree..... to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants" may become more appropriate to the situation than more civilized rules of the game," (Haiman, pg. 18)