Peace and Aggression: A Challenge of Our Time
Joan Rapczynski and Florence Zywocinski
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Lesson Plan #6
Civil Disobedience
Objective
to encourage analytical thinking on an issue where there is no right or wrong answer.
Procedure
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1. Present the following information to the class:
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The war in Vietnam led to many acts of civil disobedience. Many Americans felt that it was an unjust and immoral war. Some people in order to dramatize their feelings resorted to acts of civil disobedience. Selective Service offices were invaded and records were destroyed. The President and members of Congress were interrupted when they tried to make public speeches. Colleges and universities were shut down by demonstrations against the war.
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2. Present the following arguments used
for
these acts of civil disobedience:
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a. The law was broken to protest a far greater crime: American participation in the Vietnam War.
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b. They used the arguments that Dr. King used in the fight for civil rights. There is a higher law—the law of God. If the government’s law violates the law of God then it is an unjust law; one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. An individual who breaks a law that his conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law.
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c. A nation whose history enshrines the civil disobedience of the Boston Tea Party can not fail to recognize at least the symbolic merit of demonstrated hostility to unjust laws.
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3. Present the following arguments used
against
the acts of civil disobedience:
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a. Lawlessness can not be justified on the grounds of individual beliefs.
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b. Even if the war is immoral, the general level of morality of the country is not much improved by such conduct.
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c. If we let the individual conscience guide disobedience to the law, we must take all consciences. The law does not distinguish between saints and sinners.
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d. Our government can not function if people take it upon themselves to break the law.
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e. When people take the law into their own hands, there is no longer any government. Civil disobedience will destroy our democracy.
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4. Questions for discussion:
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a. Are citizens ever justified in breaking a law?
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b. If you believe that it is right in some instances to disobey unjust laws, who would you say should be the one to decide which laws are unjust?
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c. How far should civil disobedience go? Is violence ever justified as a means of protesting an unjust policy or law?
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d. Is there room for civil disobedience in a democracy?
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e. Could a bank robber claim that he took the money as an act of protest against immoral bank practices?
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f. What would happen to our government if Democrats decide to ignore laws passed by Republican majorities or vice-versa?
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g. Suppose a person decided that the government was spending citizen’s tax money incorrectly. Should that citizen be allowed to decide whether or not to pay taxes?
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5. Homework assignment: Write your opinion on civil disobedience and the reasoning you followed in coming to that opinion.
