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Example research essay topic: The Philosophy Of Nonviolent Protest - 1,935 words

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The Philosophy of Nonviolent Protest In this report we are going to talk about the issues related to the philosophy of nonviolent protest using several examples of world literature and film such as H. D. Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience, Bearing the Cross by Martin Luther King, Gandhi, 1982 video and The fight in the Fields- Cesar Chavez video 1996. Nonviolent protest is a way of disagreement with official and governmental decisions or other ways of conduct by not offending it in a military like way but rather showing your disobedience by various social acts of protest, such as manifestation.

Great political figures, such as Mohandas K. Gandhi and John F. Kennedy, have used Thoreau's essay calling for the reform of government to their advantage when speaking to their fellow countrymen. In his essay, Thoreau argues that government should not be in control of the people and that the people should be able to rule themselves freely however they please. In addition, he clearly states and points out that in many instances it is best when individual rights take priority over state authority.

Very often, the best authors, whether it be of a novel or an essay, clearly state their opinions and facts using various literary techniques and devices. Most ordinary and banal writers start their essays with long, tedious descriptions of the point they are trying to convey. But like all great writers and thinkers, Thoreau begins his essay with a strong, captivating sentence: That government is best which governs least (222). Thoreau's opening line grabs and lets the reader know what topic (s) the essay will be discussing.

As it turns out, this opening sentence is the basis for the rest of his essay as he encourages individuals to take responsibility for keeping the government in constant check. He believes that the best way for a country and its people to survive is if individuals are willing to exert control over the government and not be ruled like sheep. Part of Thoreau's writing style includes using examples to justify his opinions. Two such examples are the Mexican War and the slavery issues the country is facing at the time. Thoreau explains that people must cease to hold slaves and to make war on Mexico (225). The constant references to multiple examples make Thoreau's essay a strong advocate of reform in the American government.

I think that if he did not use such examples, his call for reform in the government would not be as strong. He describes the American government as a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend to his will. It is sort of a wooden gun to the people themselves; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will surely split (222). When he describes the American government in comparison to a wooden gun, it gives the reader a clear description of how people should learn to think for themselves and speak out against any absurdities of the government. As a dedicated abolitionist, he believes that only individuals hold the power to end slavery.

He thinks that you cannot depend on the government to stop slavery because it thinks as a whole, and not as individuals. Throughout the essay, I was aware that Thoreau had a clear opinion of how government should be run (if there must be any government at all) and the true meaning of the essay itself. From beginning to end, Thoreau continues to encourage individuals to be aware of the actions of the government. He states that if a person does not believe in a certain law or something that the government has stated true but all-knowingly is false, he or she should not go along with the government and instead follow his or her conscience. When he refers to his example of the Mexican War, he relates to the soldiers as The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse cogitates, etc.

In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well (224). He thinks that the soldiers act without conscience, sheepishly following their governments orders and do not think about what they are fighting for. When he talks about the evils of slavery, Thoreau states that When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote (226).

As a dedicated abolitionist, he believes that only individuals hold the power to end slavery. He thinks that you cannot depend on the government to stop slavery because it thinks as a whole, and not as individuals. As he concludes his essay, Thoreau's main point is that individual power should be greater than that of the government. Another example of civil disobedience is clearly seen in the film The Fight in the Fields. This tribute to Chavez and the establishment of the United Farm Workers Union begins with a brief history of the 100 -year struggle to organize Americas farm workers and then focuses on Chavez's life, including his childhood and roles as a community organizer and key player in the 30 -year battle to build a union and bring dignity and justice to migrant farm workers. The video emphasizes strategies of the UFW including strikes (la helga), boycotts, marches, public meetings, and national and international support that led to the first successful union contracts with grape and lettuce growers in California.

Interviews with Chavez's family, labor leaders, union supporters, clergy, political figures such as Robert and Ethel Kennedy, former California governor Pat Brown, and former UAW president Walter Reuther, illustrate the scope and impact of UFW activities on American public opinion. Viewers will be moved by Chavez's uncompromising commitment to nonviolence, his fasts, and his charismatic personality, which kept the movement alive in an atmosphere of union-busting, grower intimidation, violence, and violations of constitutional rights. A companion book, The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement, provides greater details of the events. This video is an important contribution to American labor lore. David Garrows Bearing the Cross talks about the nonviolent protest of Martin Luther King. The immediate image conveyed is of a great man leading his people out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

By placing a primacy on Kings faith, however, Dyson does not pay enough attention to the essential dialectic between leader and follower. There is no question that King gained awe-inspiring strength from his faith, that he saw his initial leadership role as descending from heaven, a role that he seemed to know would one day cost him life. In the years of 1967 and 1968, King endured a period in which his leadership was being fundamentally challenged. His nonviolent tactics seemed outdated as Black Power gained steam, despite the fact that the two strands of the movement may have generally been more in concert than disagreement.

Embroiled in a radical campaign that challenged the existing power structure, he was no longer loved by Washington. While a colleague once described him as having one foot firmly planted in the cotton field, the other in the White House, King was becoming more and more absorbed by the field each day. In the spring of 1968, he came to Memphis at the behest of its local black leadership to help in a sanitation workers strike which had begun in February. The black workers of Memphis understood their dignity as people to be at stake, and marched clothed in signs declaring, I Am a Man. When Jesse Jackson and James Bevel (Southern Christian Leadership Conference staffers at the time) expressed reservations about going to Memphis, King lectured that he had gone to Memphis for the same reasons he went anywhere: he was asked by the people who were fighting for basic civil and human rights. In the first march led by King, violence broke out.

He was whisked away from the scene, and his role as the worlds foremost advocate of nonviolence was in doubt. When King returned to Memphis to lead a peaceful march, he delivered his final and most prophetic speech, in which he foresaw his own death. I think in a rare moment born of inner turmoil... during those days in which his leadership was sorely questioned and challenged, he may have seen, as we could not, that his time was passing, Andrew Young writes in his book An Easy Burden. By the time of his death, King was a radically changed man. Not only was he attacking problems of power and wealth but he was speaking for a different segment of people a people who were gradually defining their leader.

He was trying to find the voice not of those who had no rights but of the truly alienated, the weakest and poorest in society. David Halberstam writes, Their voice is harsh and alienated. If King is to speak for them truly, then his voice must reflect theirs; it too must be alienated. This epic Gandhi surely supports the theory that any picture looks magnificent if blown up large enough. Scenes that are simply good journalism become spectacle when magnified on the big screen.

An old man with flies on his face talking of poverty, the opening sequence showing Gandhi's funeral procession, demonstrators viciously beaten as they march on a salt mine- these are images that bombard your consciousness on the large screen. You feel every blow of the club. But to successfully make the transition to the small video screen, epic must fall away and be replaced by simpler elements: suspense, character, action. Perhaps that is why this massive three-hour spectacle scores so badly at the home box office. Although it garnered eight Academy Awards (including best picture, director and actor) it is short on the simple elements. The small screen, great for car chases, misses when the action is on the mythic level, be it the massacre of entire populations or a single assassins bullet.

Besides, family munching popcorn in the living room likely wants lighter fare- not the complex themes and rich philosophy offered by the half-naked fakir who turned the British Empire upside down. It is a big pity. Yet in these times of Oklahoma City, Bosnia and Rwanda, Gandhi's message is emphatically needed, and it, at least, survives the shrinking to video size. Many people credit the term civil disobedience to great political leaders such as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. But the term civil disobedience really refers to the era of great thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau.

All in all, Thoreau's opinion That government is best which governs least continues to surface the mind of many people to this day. Bibliography: Civil Disobedience. Henry David Thoreau. Essay 1848. Bearing the Cross: MLK Jr.

and the SCLC book 1987. Gandhi. Video 1982. The fight in the Fields. Cesar Chavez. Video 1996.


Free research essays on topics related to: martin luther king, government is best which governs, civil disobedience, henry david thoreau, nonviolent protest

Research essay sample on The Philosophy Of Nonviolent Protest

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