John Locke's Second Treatise Of Civil Disobedience

Philosopher John Locke once wrote that, “No man ...has a power to hand over their preservation...to the absolute will and arbitrary dominion of someone else”. He meant that the inviolable rights of a people are greater than the demands of a government and his words ring true today. In the modern era people can fight “arbitrary dominion” through democratic election, vocal condemnation, and most controversially civil disobedience. The practice of deliberate defiance has netted much criticism for its seeming disregard for a country’s rule of law. Yet, a free society is one in which people have the power to exercise their rights, and in choosing not to follow unjust laws, they only strengthen a country's institutions.

Injustice in legislation …show more content…
. .with the intention of better preserving himself, his liberty and property”. Individuals relinquish their absolute freedom and agree to follow laws because a government can protect one’s liberties far better than individuals. Thus, a free society is one in which its government ensures the basic rights of its citizens while maximizing their right to liberty. But what happens if a government neglects its purpose and passes laws that curtail both autonomy and natural rights? Locke writes, “All power that is given with trust for attaining a certain end is limited by that purpose; when the purpose is obviously neglected or opposed by the legislature·, the trust is automatically forfeited and the power returns into the hands of those who gave it”. When governmental power is used incorrectly, the social contract is broken and people no longer have an obligation to obey unjust laws. Defending freedom may require exercising a right to …show more content…
Mahatma Gandhi employed a campaign of peaceful resistance in the first half of the twentieth so that India could be independent from Great Britain and possess institutions that protected the rights of Indians. Some years later, American civil rights organizations continued this approach, organizing sit-ins and marches to force governments to change policies that discriminated against African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that civil disobedience,“seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue”. It uses the power of the people to force institutional action. Civil disobedience tactics can be just as effective today, just look at Cedric Herrou a French farmer who illegally transported African migrants into France for humanitarian reasons. Put on trial in January for his open lawbreaking and refusal to stop, he was given a lenient sentence, the New York Times reports, because, “of widespread discomfort with the law”. Even as I write this civil disobedience is pushing boundaries and forcing free societies to uphold their sacred