The Impact Of Civil Disobedience And The Use Of Morality And Justice - Essay Example

The impact of Civil Disobedience and the use of morality and justice to support the Civil Rights and Occupy MovementsIn this article, the main focus will be on the views held about the effect of civil disobedience and the use of morality justice to support civil rights and occupy movements. Some of the implications of the view that there is a right to civil disobedience will be central to the discussion in this paper (Geschwender, 63). According to Gandhi, the right to civil disobedience is essentially diverse from the way that contemporary liberals like John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and Joseph Raz comprehend the term. In addition, personal views on the subject shall be made in support of civil disobedience and occupy movements (Geschwender, 66). As such, the fantasy theme technique of analysis will be used to analyze so of the occupy movements in the contemporary society in America. Specifically, it has been noted that the right to civil disobedience means that the system should exhibit lenience to civil disobedient movements not just because the movements are right, but when they are rationally misunderstood in their views. On one hand, this is unlike the typical laissez-faire perception based on which the right to civil disobedience implication that everybody should show tolerance to civil disobedient people, however destructive in their action. According to Dworkin, a famous proponent of the ordinary open-minded perception, a principle of civil disobedience has to be responsive to the kind of assurances the movements have and insensate to the logicality of these assurances. On his perspective in making decisions on issues like, as whether to penalize rebellious movements, it is pertinent to inquire whether the assurances are integrity-based, justice-based, or policy-based (Geschwender, 71). Nevertheless, the reliability or irrelevance of these assurances is not significant. Personally, the logic behind or plausibility of these assurances as well has some bearing. Civil disobedience, denial to comply with a rule or adhere to a policy believed to be unjust. Founders of civil disobedience inclining their movements on moral right and generally utilize the peaceful method of inactive opposition so as to indicate varied consideration to the inequality. Risking retribution, like violent in reprisal acts or detention, they try to show transformations in the law. In the contemporary society, civil disobedience has been utilized in such occasions like street protests, marches, the occupying of buildings, and strikes among other economic opposition (Becker, L. & Becker, 69). The rationale behind civil disobedience dates back to conventional and biblical foundations. Probably, its most prominent exhibition is established in Henry David Thoreau's On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849), whereby he asserts that a being, who gives the government its authority in the first place, should adhere to the orders of ethics in contrasting unjust laws (Ginsberg & Miller-Cribbs, 27). Thoreau's writing had a massive influence on Mohandas Gandhi and the methods that were utilized, first to attain Indian rights in South Africa, and later to win independence for India. Gandhi founded the idea of Satyagraha (meaning: holding to truth), acts of civil disobedience associated with Indian virtues and his personal high moral statutes as well as a sense of integrity. He attracted a huge number of supporters through the use of an efficient opinionated tool and played a major role in establishing the British view to end colonial rule of Gandhi’s homeland. The belief and techniques of civil disobedience have been embraced by Quakers and other sacred movements, the British labor movement, suffragists, feminists, adherents of prohibition, pacifists and other war resisters, followers of the less privileged, and a wide range of other dissidents. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most exceptional doctrinaire and founder of civil disobedience in the United States (Ginsberg & Miller-Cribbs, 60). He was on the verge of these movement during the 1950s and 60s where he attained global fame by conducting huge peaceful demonstrations, boycotts, and sit-ins. He was imprisoned on a number of occasions just like Gandhi. The torture, enormous arrests, and even killings of civil-rights movements guaranteed to peaceful civil disobedience were imperative aspects in changing public views and in the eventual enacting of new civil-rights laws. Civil disobedience in the United States conventionally has been linked to those in opposition of the political continuum. The occupy movement is one of the greatest civil disobedience movements ever seen in the United States of America. Adbusters Foundation, which is well known for its marketing-free anti-consumerist magazine suggested a diplomatic activity of Wall Street to demonstrate corporate impact on the democracy, the lack of authorized ramifications for the bankers causing the recent universal economic recession, and an increasing disparity in affluence. In the use of the fantasy theme analysis, the movement indicates the element of scene, which is the place in which the protest takes place. As a result, the OWS sought to put together the symbolic setting of this year’s demonstrations in Tahrir Square having the consent decision making of the 2011 Spanish dissents (Ginsberg & Miller-Cribbs, 35). There most significant reason as to why the setting for such an action was in the Zuccotti Park is because it is privately owned. This bars the police forces from lawfully forcing the complainants to leave without an official permission of the property owner. In this case, the rhetoric, figurative and tricks of the Occupy Wall Street are on the one hand stimulated by the Arab Spring demonstrations like the Tahrir Square in Cairo. In addition, the movement has an immediate archetype which is the British student gripe of 2010, Greece’s as well as the Spain’s anti-austerity demonstrations of the “indignados” (Becker, L. & Becker, 77). These experiences have a commonality with OWS dependence on social media and electronic messaging to outwit the governments and the notion that monetary organizations, associations and opinionated influence have been malfeasant in their activities towards the younger populace and the proletarians in society. The OWS movement utilizes a body of material that represents the rhetoric of a specific movement. A slogan is used to express their needs to the outside world so that their complaint is well understood (Ginsberg & Miller-Cribbs, 40). The slogan we are the 99% was initially founded as a Tumblr webpage in August 2011. The slogan was used to refer to the widespread deliberation of affluence amongst the top 1% of revenue earners as opposed to the rest of 99%. As such, the slogan shows that a large majority of persons are being punished for the mistakes of the small minority group in the United States of America. The implication seen in the movement according to the fantasy theme analysis technique, the OWS found that democracy was being tempered with by the political elites and bourgeoisie against the proletarians. Following this, the Occupy Wall Street movement has a powerful description of the dramatis personae within the common vision of fighting for equality in social and economic distribution by bankers. In this case, the bourgeois are the villains in the entire demonstration as the OWS movement forms the heroes of the activity (Becker, L. & Becker, 121). A good example, in the “we are the 99%” slogan, 1% of revenue earners acquire more than twice their wages over the past thirty years based on the report released by the Congressional Budget Office. From research, the report was released only as considerations of the OWS movement were commencing to involve themselves in the national opinionated argument. Based on the report released between 1979 and 2007, the revenue of top 1% of American increased by approximately 275%. Similarly, 60% of the population in America within the middle class realized their revenue increment by 40%. On the basis of the plotline analyzed using the fantasy theme analysis, the Occupy Wall Street movement has a common fantasy type, which is the conspiracy scenario. The OWS movement participants perceived the financial sector of the government as conspiring to suppress the majority of Americans through social and economic inequality seen in increased cases of unemployment, greed and corruption. The corporations in America took a great deal in the discrimination of society in economic growth through unbalanced income hence the slogan, we are the 99%. Because of this, the participants of the demonstration held a notion that the government as well as affluent people was suppressing what they felt was democracy in the financial sector. The Occupy Wall Street movement perceived income disparity as a representation of the eventual concentration of political and economic power on specific people in the country. This would in turn influence the American society’s individual lives, freedoms and social relationships. According to the OWS movement, revenue or economic disparity was evidently unacceptable in a democratic society like America (Kurtines & Gewirtz, 85). Early on the complainants were generally youths following their widespread dependence on social network for information in which they promoted the progression. This moved on as the protesters increased whereby older individuals joined the movement. Before the closure of the overnight utility at the Zuccotti Park encampment, approximately 100 to 200 participants put up in Zuccotti Park. In the first place, there were no tents allowed causing the protesters to spend their night in sleeping bags or under blankets. Life can be described as having been unbearable (Becker, L. & Becker, 134). In the analysis of the OWS movement, it will be imperative to look at the sanctioning agents of public opinion. A close analysis of the public opinion polls reveals that the approval rating had mixed feelings on the actions of the Occupy Wall Street. The rating variation ranged between 59% and 22%. However, it is noted that most of the participants in the polls approved their mass action as compared to the disapproval. Yet, most of the people did not offer their opinions. This implies that most of Americans support the protest against social and economic disparity put forth by the OWS movement (Kurtines & Gewirtz, 97). The sanctioning agents can as well be seen from the political reaction emanating from the White House. As such, president Obama during a news conference asserted that the movement was an expression of the kind of frustration Americans undergo especially after the Great Depression (Kurtines & Gewirtz, 100). This must have been the major cause of economic recession in America as well as the entire world. The Great Depression led to large security harm throughout the country. He however was not for the view that the OWS was protesting against. He holds the views that the OWS movement incorporated irresponsible people trying to fight efforts to stop the abusive practices that led into the Great Depression. Work Cited: Kurtines, W. & Gewirtz, J. Morality, moral behavior, and moral development. New York: Wiley, 1984 Geschwender, J. A. The Black revolt: the civil rights movement, ghetto uprisings, and separatism. Michigan: Prentice-Hall, 1971 Becker, L. & Becker, C. (Eds.). Encyclopedia of ethics, Volume 2. New York: Garland Pub., 1992 Ginsberg, L. & Miller-Cribbs, J. Understanding social problems, policies, and programs. Carolina: Univ of South Carolina Press, 2005 Read More