A Comparison of Letter from Birmingham Jail With Real Life Situation

Question: Issues pertaining the distinct from the justification whether people can engage in civil disobedience. Most people, in this case, believe that civil disobedience is an act of defense.

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The Incorporated Thematic Reading: Sophocles play "Martin Luther King Jr." and "Antigone's," "Letter from the Birmingham Jail."

Introduction

Hook: Civil or ritualistic disobedience is the violation of the law and while rejecting the whole system. This type of act finds legitimate avenues of nonexistent or blocked changes that makes the individual feel obligated by a higher principle to break specific laws. However, the individual on the wrong is likely to be punished if the acts serve as a protest. When someone is subjected to punishment, the action taken sets a moral example to provoke the majority as well as the government into effecting meaningful social, economic or political change. Under this type of setting, the leaders of the civil disobedience later ensure that the illegal actions are non-violent.

Argumentative question: Which type of breach of law acts like civil disobedience? When should civil disobedience be morally justified, and what should be the response of the law to individuals who engage in Civil disobedience?

Background Information: The play between Martin Luther King and Antigone orders Thebes people not to bury Polynices body the prince of Ban (Fairchild & Robinson 485). But then, Antigone breaks the rule and buries her brother by performing the sacred rites which do not allow any individual to speak against the law. This ends up being perceived as unjust. As a result, Antigone is condemned to death. In the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' Martin defends the ways of confronting racism by using the nonviolent method. While the demonstrations supported and led by King were considered to be illegal by local religious and political authorities, King still rejected any civil law that denied the natural or eternal law (Fairchild & Robinson 489). His decision at the end made him suffer because of opposing injustice.

Thesis: The sense of civil disobedience as conducted by Martin Luther King and Angione is also seen in today's real life

Claim 1: The concept of 'natural laws' is an independence declaration as elaborated by Thomas Jefferson that man has the right to liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness.

Evidence 1a: The above statement has led to several controversies in the history of America that any enumerated federal laws in the Constitution and answer to the higher authority make many people describe it based on the personal conscience, morality, and theology (Aroney 735). This means that a person has the right to asses if the law supports the idea of justice and whether it is unjust. The distinction made by Thoreau show that for the law to be unfair, it should be broken in-violently and the victim must accept the punishment given due to his transgression (Walls 221). In short, the victim must be ready to be put in prison but not to lead a rebellion. In the part of 'civil,' Thoreau ended up serving his time in jail and refused to follow the rules of law pertaining the Mexican slavery and war.

Evidence 1 b: The features of civil disobedience not only are they vital to the impact it has on the governments and societies but also to its status because of the breach of law (Aroney 741). Generally, civil disobedience is regarded as a moral defense for the ordinary offense and any form of protest such as coercive violent or militant action. Therefore, before the military insubordination is constructed with the other types of protest such as ordinary offenses, attention is needed to the features to exemplify the influence of civil disobedience.

Evidence 1c: The features among other things include a principled or conscientious outlook for both desire and condemnation for change in policy or law (Aroney 747). Other features such as non-violence, fidelity to law and publicity are considered as prove but are less centralized because of the assumptions.

b. Claim 2; The suffering Antigone passed through has been represented in contrast to excuses because of the suffering the family has encountered. Since they are not powerful enough to face the opposition, they end up obeying the authorities and extreme action.

Development of Argument

Whether the evidence is credible the concept of the nature of the evidence of civil obedience may have similar lines when it comes to the societies.

Secondary source 1; While people undertake political protests because of several reasons concerning civil disobedience, it also overlooks the other side of the dissent. For instance, during the Vietnam war, the US draft-dodger was said to have combined conscientious objection and civil disobedience in the same action (Aroney 765). Moreover, an individual such as Gandhi was credited with revolutionary movement and civil obedience. Despite the overlapping potential, the broad distinction between the other forms of protests and civil disobedience about the scope is seen in his response and the agent's motivation.

Second secondary source 2: King's activism is also a case in point. He was motivated by his commitments to democracy and his religious convictions, justice, and equality to undertake protest like the Montgomery bus boycott (Fairchild & Robinson 493). While King has never thought that he would ever fulfill the proviso purpose, he accepted the reasons of how he would have done it (Fairchild & Robinson 512). Therefore King's activism was considered to be civil disobedience.

Conclusion

The summation of the thesis: Civil or ritualistic disobedience is the violation of the law, this type of act finds legitimate avenues of nonexistent or blocked changes but then the one the wrong is likely to be punished if the acts serve as a protest. Therefore, in civil disobedience, the victim must be ready to be put in prison. Under this type of setting, the leaders of the civil disobedience should be sure that the illegal actions are not violent.

The summation of the ideas: King's argument shows that in reality, the best way an individual can escape civil disobedience is by respecting the law. Through his statement, he mentioned that those who oppose racism and stand for what the society wants the value the heritage of the law. For instance, as observed, the difference between the 'Letter from Birmingham jail' and Angitone is that both suggest that civil disobedience that is not violent is the best way to demonstrate how the law is obeyed. The same thing is also mentioned by Grandhi that, despite the overlapping potential the broad distinction between the other forms of protests and civil disobedience about the scope is seen in his action and the agent's motivation. Therefore, in civil disobedience, the victim must be ready to be put in prison.

Works Cited

Aroney, Nicholas. "The Photogrammetric Society Constitution And By-Laws Constitution." The Photogrammetric Record, vol. 10, no. 60, 2006, pp. 733-766., doi:10.1111/j.1477-9730.1982.tb00182.x.

Fairchild, Gregory B., and Jeffrey A. Robinson. "Unlearned Lessons From Letter From Birmingham Jail." Business & Society, vol. 47, no. 4, 2008, pp. 484-522., doi:10.1177/0007650308323696.

Walls, Laura Dassow. "Civil Disobedience By Henry David Thoreau." Early American Literature, vol 53, no. 1, 2018, pp. 220-222. Johns Hopkins University Press, doi:10.1353/eal.2018.0014.