Another area of his thinking is that government is symbolic of a ‘machine’, and man should commit non-violent disobedience to ‘gain access to the machine’. Otherwise, the machine will keep on grinding or producing its bad product. These philosophies were part of the foundation of Gandhi’s and Kings’ opinions. Mahatma Gandhi is thought of as leading the pacifist movement to get the British out of his country, India. Many people thought that Gandhi’s philosophy was passive, but he actually refrained from violence towards his oppressors, knowing that he and his followers would receive violence from the oppressors.
If the United States is clear that they do not want to make him a criminal but instead a national symbol then maybe the Japanese might agree and surrender. With this option the United States will have moral leadership and will be able to build a war of peace and democracy without stooping to the level of the enemy. If the United States does chose this option they are risking that the japes might take it as a sign of weakness and might encourage them to keep fighting. Another risk with this option is that if not all aggressive militarism is destroyed then we know that new dictators and wars will come up again. Option two is that the United States should drop an atomic bomb on a deserted island so that the whole world can see what power we have.
Paine used Common Sense as a great tool to let the commoners and less educated to gain some insight on the role and purpose of government. Firstly, Paine makes a distinction between government and society. Paine states: “Society is everything constructive and good that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best.” He goes on to say that “government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, and that a government should be judged solely on the basis of the extent to which it accomplishes this goal.” Basically, Paine is stating to the common people that they have the opportunity to form their own representation of government and do it in a way that truly represents their wants and needs.
Trotsky advocated a permanent revolution with Stalin didn’t want. Stalin viewed Trotsky’s ideas as a direct attack on him so he attacked swiftly. This resulted in Trotsky getting kicked out of the Bolshevik party because of his left wing views. This links into my next point in how Stalin became the favourite to replace Lenin and defeated the rest of the candidates. Luck played a big part into how Stalin defeated the left side of the party.
The phrase “civil disobedience” first originated in an essay, “Resistance to Government,” by the American author Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau promoted the idea that citizens have the right to exercise resistance against laws they see as unjust or morally wrong. Civil disobedience allows a citizen to convey his or her thoughts and ideas in a nonviolent way. Antigone conveyed this when she said, “No one will ever convict me for a traitor” Antigone decided to bury her brother, for she was obeying the gods, even though it
was declared illegal by the King, and even though she knew she would be killed for her actions. Antigone believed that the power of the gods was greater than the power of any king.
His aim was to come to terms with the revolutionists, to use his own authority and power – involving his army – to betray his masters by plotting an overthrow. In this sense, I see Yuan Shikai as a key influence to the fall of the Manchu Dynasty, showing the social factors. I also feel that there was a subconscious side of wishing for revenge against the Manchu Dynasty, who humiliated him when imprisoning him previously. This could give the public, such as the rebels of Wuhan, some hope to the concept that if someone higher than them in hierarchy agrees with their views and reasons to rebel; then they must be doing something right. Adding to all of this, Yuan Shikai made a deal with Sun Yatsen stating;
Mahatma Gandhi used civil disobedience because he knew that it was the only way that the Indian communities would be able to fight the laws of the Great Britain government. Gandhi called his method of civil disobedience, “Satyagrahis”. Gandhi stated that Satyagrahis was a peaceful form of civil disobedience and that any form of violence was prohibited, even if the government of Great Britain brought violence upon them. Gandhi also felt that if somebody were to join the Satyagrahis movement, they would have to know the consequences and must be willing to pay for their actions. After some time passed since the movement began, many people who were part of the movement were put in jail.
He cites the existence of unjust laws and declares that we as citizens should not be obligated to follow them. The basis for this argument is that the government is run by a majority with the most power, not the most valid perspective. This is the reason why Thoreau advises citizens to follow what they believe to be right and not embrace what the government says. Thoreau states that is not a man’s duty to pledge to eradicate all wrongs from his country but that it is one’s duty to “wash his hands” of it and to not support the wrong in anyway (page 183 para13). He continues to tell a story of how he used this method to protest the Mexican American War which was being waged at the time the essay was written.
57). If leaders of government imposed regulations on the people, he believed this would hamper society’s growth and the people would not maintain the highest level of happiness. This demonstrates a good leader should empower the people to become more independent and to instill trust in the people to make the right choice. Machiavelli, a totalitarian thinker, believed that a leader should maintain a dictatorship rule with complete power by any means necessary without regard to the people’s expectations. He states, “Hence it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity” (38, ver.
Morality, in his system, is a vehicle to move from state of nature into law of nature, and is a move mandated by self-interest. In the laws of nature, there is a covenant among people in which one of the parties must perform after the other through promise. However, promise in Hobbes’ system is not based on trust, virtue or any intrinsic purpose, because by the first natural right which is self-preservation, such justification seems as a luxury. Since one on trusts no one, promise keeping should be enforced by the fear of sovereign, whose job is to enforce the contract by punishing those who break it. Thus, the fear of punishment by sovereign makes promise keeping possible.