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"If you aren't willing to sacrifice anything, you can't change anything" Oddly enough, this is why I have issues with the way in which people now protest again
by ubernostrum 13y ago
"If you aren't willing to sacrifice anything, you can't change anything"
Oddly enough, this is why I have issues with the way in which people now protest against unjust laws.
The effectiveness of civil disobedience comes from putting authorities in a position where they must enforce an unjust law to the letter, thus demonstrating to the general public the injustice of the law itself and rallying support to change the law.
This means that civil disobedience effectively requires the person engaging in it to suffer the consequences of disobedience. If a law is unjust, but violators who attempt to demonstrate this can simply walk away relatively unscathed, then it's a lot more difficult to make the case to the public at large that the law is unjust. After all, that guy jumped up and down on the law, and got away with it! How bad could it really be?
But it seems that what we have now is a generation of people who are willing to take the step of declaring the law unjust, and willing to take the step of breaking it to make a point, but unwilling to suffer the consequences which would demonstrate the injustice to the public. Which accomplishes little.
- smtddr 13y agoI think Lavabit's owner and Snowden are suffering consequences for the choices they've made; more than they should be. I'm happy to ease that pain in whatever little way I can.