Civil Disobedience : Bane of Boon to the Concept of Just Society? Essay

Even as the nations are engaged in tackling the menace of terrorism among its rank and file, the debate over what makes a righteous family has renewed itself with fresh questions evolving expose of it, especi on the wholey from the perspective of elegant noncompliance, where issues on ethics, emotion, justification and morality are embedded in an inseparable right smart and therefore add complexities in the comprehension of just society.Thus this paper weighs some(a) pertinent points involving the concept of just society from the perspective of civil disobedience before arriving at an inference on whether civil disobedience is a bane or a boon to the concept of just society. A plan Definition of Just Society Just Society refers to a particular condition of a society, where its egresss enjoy some granting immunity beyond rightfulnesss that are framed, provided that freedom should ideally be directed towards garnering collective benefits for the society. This facility of a ci tizen goes down under the head of fair treatment of the state to its subjects and is commonly known as social justice.With time, this freedom has become a medium of the thinkers and well wishers of the society to share and air their views to draw the attention of the government on several issues pertaining to the upbeat of the concerned society. Different political ideas, ideologies or situations create different interpretings of a just society. As for example, the left-wing ideology could prescribe an extensive use of income redistribution later on judging its present state as a deterrent to the just society, while a right-wing political party could stress on philanthropy, return market system or charity to attain social justice for the society.However, the broad base of just society is powered by the concepts like comparability and human rights. A Brief Definition of civic Disobedience The briefest definition of civil disobedience could be like an act guided by conscience to wards preventing or developing a condition in the society, which might overstep certain areas of written law, yet that overstepping is not intended to oppose the law. Civil disobedience is supposed to be an discovercome of a serious observation of any flaw or the scope of development in the society, totally back up by moral and ethical values and totally devoted towards a positive change in the society.Here the gray area lies in the quality of such an observation and inference. For example, a convention of thinker might observe that certain areas of taxes are burdening the citizens and thus be waived, while another group might observe a positive impact of taxes on the citizen. However, civil disobedience is supposed to act under the guideline of equality and human rights and it has to be morally justified. Understandably, these preconditions are liable to vary according the laws of various states. The QuestionsThe preconditions of civil obedience raises certain questions like why a civil disobedience would be considered as anarchy, if it fails to remain within such preconditions like moral justification or total submission to the written law of the land. Reasonably, questions like that evolve out of human rights parameter or the natural human qualities like emotion where driven by the cause, one might go overboard and breach the law to end up in the prison. There are questions too, about the applicable yardstick of identifying the nature of civil disobedience or di yardbirduishing it from ordinary offences.Civil disobedience is generally not considered as a crime in a democratic society. Thus, if a civil disobedient is jailed or otherwise punished, it becomes a recognized offence, which, in other words, stands as a different interpretation of the persons motive. Perhaps it is for this reason even the founder of the very mintage civil disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, once rued over the apathy of the society towards the plight of the intellectuals who rais e voice for the society itself after he was jailed for refusing to give way the state poll tax to American government as a protest against governmental plan to prosecute a war in Mexico.An stir up Thoreau wrote in his essay Only a very few people heroes, martyrs, patriots, reformers in the best sense serve their society with their consciences, and so necessarily suffer society for the most part, and are commonly treated by it as enemies (Thoreau, 1991). Towards Making a Just SocietyThus questions like above authorize another query like what makes a just state, and stress on garnering more flexibility through legal parameters instead of leaving the subject on the leniency of the government like when, in spite of acting on moral drive, a civil disobedient stands at a overlap where the state can either overlook his/her offence or jail him/her. In either of the action, the government stands to loose if it overlooks the situation it might be fault for not doing its duty, and if it imprisons the person, it might be condemned of violating human rights.This indicates that to create a just state, states have a role to formulate a convincing script of the socio-economic class of justice like Compensatory (corrective) justice, Retributive justice or Distributive justice. The observation of Thoreau as mentioned earlier, also points towards another roadblock towards making a just society. Since the kitchen stove of values like transparency, security, privacy, integrity and autonomy cannot be fully defined by the scripts of justice, the governmental interpretations of them can invoke mixed reaction among people some might resort to civil disobedience, some might remain skeptic to the situation.Majority should be able to justify the situation and their best role in it, before pursuing a cause. Thus people should be equipped to meet the standards of civil disobedience or to reap any benefit out of it Justified civil disobedience, says John Rawls, can serve to inhibit departures from justice and to correct departures when they occur thus it can act as a stabilising force in society (Rawls, 1971). This situation speaks about the important role of the civil society too that it is their duty to educate and inform the plenty about the nature of civil disobedience (direct or indirect) and the possible consequences attached to them.Alongside it should be a joint effort by state and the civil society to spread awareness about how civil disobedience differs from legal protest, rule departures and conscientious objection and more importantly how it has no relation with the breaking away groups like radical protesters and extremists. CONCLUSION There can be no doubt that civil disobedience keeps the society lively and interacting, besides being implemental in guarding the common interest of people through the conscientious voice of the citizens. Without this vigilance, the concept of just society cannot be put into action.While the governmenta l interpretation of just society determines the scope and outcome of civil disobedience, the clarity of perception of the civil society about just society keeps civil disobedience motion on its desired track. Thus, both state and the civil society have to share the task of disseminating appropriate education at the every corner of the society to invoke awareness on judiciary system and the scope of civil rights. This awareness would then automatically serve as a shield to the civilians and as an alert to the state.However, in the modern context of terrorism or increasing rate of violence, some might opine that civil disobedience has lost its sting which is in fact, not true. Now the new world order evokes global citizens to resort to civil disobedience on global issues like terrorism or environment, which might have no bearing with the local states policy or its actions. This speaks about how the civil societies across the globe have fitting itself to the new avatar of civilizati on they are now connected to one another for the sake of making a just global society all the while depending on a common tool like civil disobedience.Thus, in both of its new and old role, civil disobedience proves to be a boon to the concept of just society. EndsWorks CitedRawls, John (1971), A Theory of Justice. Cambridge Harvard University Press. Thoreau, Henry David (1991), Civil Disobedience in Civil Disobedience in Focus. Hugo A. Bedau (ed. ), capital of the United Kingdom Routledge. Works Consulted Brownlee, K. (2007). Civil Disobedience. Web Article. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2007, from http//plato. stanford. edu/entries/civil-disobedience/FeaCivDis Civil Disobedience. Web Article. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2007, from http//www. answers. com/topic/civil-disobedience