Civil Disobedience

A just society has fair laws. But most societies aren’t like that. So what can you do? The opponent of slavery, Henry David Thoreau, gave one answer in his essay ‘On Civil Disobedience’: follow your conscience and break the law on moral grounds rather than be a cog in an unjust system. Ghandi, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King have all inspired generations to make changes to unjust laws through civil disobedience. Stephen Fry explains its origins.

Narrated by Stephen Fry. Scripted by Nigel Warburton.

This project is from the BBC in partnership with The Open University, the animations were created by Cognitive.

[wyndie]

"Follow your conscience and break the law on moral grounds, rather than be a cog in an unjust system." - Henry David Thoreau

[whateverwhatever]

civil disobedience doesn't mean burning buildings, looting, rioting. there's a way to bring about changes without being violent

[sploofmcsterra]

Going against the flow of a social system is very difficult, the rules that govern us inside such systems feel almost mandatory. But we must break those rules that are wrong (if they are immoral, inefficient etc.) if we are to weaken their strength and highlight that they are not right and DON'T have to be accepted.

[musictomyears]

Antigone: the greatest thesis on civil disobedience and the tragic clash between 'equality before the law' and defending a moral claim

[ChallengeTheNarrative]

Need more open minded people like Steven Fry. A human amongst sheep ☺

[therealzizmon]

This video couldn't be any more relevant than it is right now, during the police brutality protests.

[SYWPiano]

Question: what if a man's conscience is fundamentally contradicting another man's conscience? For example, person A advocates overthrowing a corrupted government through violence and person B advocates non-violent direct actions? And second question is, how do we evaluate if a law is just or not since everyone's conscience is different?

[VivekYadavBlogger]

why don't you make videos like these anymore?

[saisreejan]

A just society has fair laws, but most societies aren’t like that. So what can we do, The opponent of slavery Henrry David Thoreau gave us one answer in his essay on civil dissobiedience. “Follow your conscience and break the law on moral grounds rather than be a cog in an unjust system”. As he put it “let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. Influenced by Henrry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi Championed nonviolent civil disobedience in his campaign for Indian independence. In 1930 he organised a long march to the sea by picking up a few crystal salt from the mud he defied a british law forbidding indians from making their own salt, Inspiring thousands. On a segregated bus in Alabama in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. She too was arrested. Her symbolic act of defiance helped focus the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Junior, another fan of Henrry David Thoreau’s essay, staged major protests against unjust laws affecting America’s black community. Laws that were eventually changed as a result. More recently climate change protesters and the Occupi movement have taken on the fight for justice through nonviolent law breaking it’s clear that civil disobedience shouldn’t and will not be discontinued there will always be laws that are thought to be unjust in every society across the Globe

[patrickcourtney]

You left out what the Bible says “every sole is to be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority which God has not ordained “
Romans 13

[just-some-menace]

I'm not so sure tearing down a statue is "non violent protest".

[Donteatacowman]

I get a surge of the Cain instinct if we're bringing up Mr. Walden Pond but I'll try to do a little death of the author I mean I sure as heck am not gonna say these champions of human rights were wrong.

I used to be a pacifist when I was younger, no ifs/ands/buts. But now I think it's more situational and nuanced than that.

Civil disobedience is an amazing tool from a PR standpoint for a movement, right? It works if there's some kind of external audience. Instead of strangers in the government or from other countries seeing a bunch of fighting, shrugging and being like "This seems complicated, we don't know who's at fault, " civil disobedience shows a contrasting portrait of "one group, without provocation, is acting violently and unjustly toward another group." In the court of public opinion, that means a lot. But not every fight for civil rights is going to be won or lost by public opinion.

I wonder if we previously had hit a sweet spot in global news coverage where people had access to world events but could be en mass entirely removed from the situation. I mean in comparison to a time before radio and telegraph, where news traveled more slowly; or compared to now, when it seems like everyone has an opinion and a party bias that determines how they react to other countries' politics. But, then again, usually when people attribute human behavior to "the media" du jour, they're making excuses (eg "widespread literacy will ruin our kids' memory!" "cheap novels are corrupting our youths' morals!" "tv is rotting our kids' brains!") so I'm probably wrong on this point.

Either way, civil disobedience is clearly a way to weaponize publicity. It gets people talking, it gets other people on your side, it may unite members of the oppressed group to have a common game plan. But I think it's only a part of the plan, right? You've gotten attention, you've made the jerks angry... but it seems like there's a missing gap between that, and getting the law changed. I guess I've got to look up the history of these movements now.

I like the ending emphasis on non-violent law-breaking. The gut reaction against this seems to be ways of forcing an interpretation of violence onto a nonviolent act. For example, a peaceful protest will be reported as a "gathering riot." Protesters may be called "thugs." Any violence resulting from civil disobedience, even though it's exclusively Group A against the protesting Group B, will end up with Group B accused of "inciting violence." Not to even get into the way people reacted to one dude kneeling at a sports game. Third-party reporters are treated as criminals. I'm sure these kinds of issues were still happening during the 50s and 60s, but I get the impression that racism manifested differently based on area and so there wasn't necessarily a big push in favor of racism from the US feds. But, then again, MLK. So maybe I just need to do some more learning about the history of civil disobedience to understand whether we're facing new challenges or old ones.

[EdwardScissorsHands]

I would love to make the subtitles to these videos, in Portuguese and in English. The question is, do I have permission to do this? If BBC Radio 4 answers me, it would be my pleasure.

[SandeepKumar-qckj]

British still ashamed of admitting that king jr. was influenced by Gandhi. ☹️

[arottingcorpset]

Well If my morals says murders ok yet if I act on my morals instead of the law I will suffer by going to jail so what should I do follow my morals and suffer at the hands of the society or obey and not suffer

[shrikrishnajugtawat]

I know a bit about Mahatma Gandhi. He was called "Bapu" in India and (as much as i remember) it means Father. After independence the Indian State gave him the honor of being called the "Father of Nation".

[dariowestern]

I am a nudist, and this video is something that every single nudist on the planet can learn from.

[leonardocasali]

Protestos ambientais são contrários à desobediência civil. Já que eles são a favor de um estado grande e que oprima as pessoas, forçando-se a pagar mais caro em produtos que sejam “ambientalmente corretos”, o que é uma visão Antagonista a de trudeau

[adambellair]

Hi mrs moullec I Hope you enjoy your vacation thank you for this wonderful year and I hope I’ll have you as a teacher next year 📈📈

[lorchhayheang]

Do we have a fair society in the world today? can anyone answer me