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Dissent Essay
Dissent Essay
Nolan Jett
Cooper
AP Lang P. 3
26 October 2017
Dissent Essay
Ever since the founding of our nation, our society has been evolving. In the Bill of
Rights, drafted shortly after the Constitution, the people of the United States are given the right
to peaceful protest, to petition the government, the freedom of speech and the press, and many
other liberties that are considered inalienable. People exercising these rights and sometimes even
going a little further is what has shaped our country and what makes the United States so unique.
In 1891, an Irish author named Oscar Wilde, claimed that all progress has been made through
disobedience. Wilde’s claim is true in the sense that almost all of the changes that have been
made in history have risen out of civil disobedience. His claim however, is not relevant to
peaceful acts of protest that are protected under articles such as the Bill of Rights.
In the Bill of Rights, there are several amendments that protect certain rights of the
people of the United States. These rights such as freedom of speech, press, right to petition the
government, freedom to peaceful assembly, and others are put are protected so that if the people
are not happy with the government, they have the power to make a difference and inflict change
without having to worry about punishment. Therefore, actions that one takes that are protected
under the Bill of Rights would not be considered civil disobedience as Thoreau explains it in his
article “Civil Disobedience.” As Thoreau describes it, civil disobedience would be considered
any act that one uses to express his discontent with the government that is illegal.
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Oscar Wilde’s claim that all progress has been made through disobedience is true in the
sense that almost all of the changes that have been made in history have risen out of civil
disobedience. However, all the actions that are considered disobedient would also be considered
illegal. In “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau gives an example of when he
refused to pay a tax to the state of Massachusetts saying that, “[he] should not like to think that
[he] ever [relies] on the protection of the state,” because he can protect himself (9). He therefore
does not believe that he owes the state any money. Thoreau also knows that a portion of this tax
will go to the federal government which will use it to support the Mexican war and slavery; both
things that he is opposed to. Since not paying taxes is illegal, this would be considered an act of
civil disobedience. A more recent example would be the civil rights movements of the fifties and
attempt to win equal rights for people of color in the US. In 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, an
African American woman named Rosa Parks sat at the front of a public bus. At the time, the
front of the bus was reserved for white people. Parks was arrested as it was illegal for her to sit
there. Therefore, this would be considered an act of civil disobedience as Thoreau qualifies it.
Wilde’s claim however is not relevant to peaceful acts of protest that are protected under
articles such as the Bill of Rights. There have been thousands of peaceful protests throughout our
history. The recent Black Lives Matter movement is one that has become a large part of many
Americans lives. This movement encourages and supports the equal respect and justice for
people of color. It is all over social media and there have been many marches such as the one in
Downtown Houston in May, 2017, after acts of what some people considered to be police
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brutality. Peaceful marches and protests such as this however, are legal acts protected by the Bill
of Rights. Therefore, they would not be considered acts of civil disobedience. Another example
is the recent movement of sitting or kneeling for the National Anthem to protest injustice and
inequality in the United States. This is something that many football teams in the NFL, such as
the San Francisco 49’s partake in. Although many people may disagree or have strong opposing
feelings about this, it is not against the law. This provides another instance where Thoreau’s
Without civil disobedience, our lives and society could be drastically different. Wilde’s
claim is true in that almost all changes throughout history have been made or influenced by civil
disobedience. However, his claim is not relevant to peaceful acts of protests that are reserved to
the people under articles such as the Bill of Rights. In the United States, dissenting from the
norm has always been emboldened. This is why we have rights such as our rights to peaceful
assembly, freedom of speech and the press, as well as many other rights that are considered
inalienable protected.
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Works Cited