Kenneth Pan (Ia-Chi)Professor Darini NicholasCH 400 -144 May 2014Ideas of Violence and Practices of Civil Disobedience: A Genealogical ApproachCivil disobedience is an active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government. It's one of many approaches people have used to rebel against what they believe are unjust laws. It is an important and effective way of protesting which, although in most cases “illegal”, is justified as an act of morality. Disobeying a law in itself is not necessary civil disobedience, if the action of breaking the law is not accompanied by a moral argument, it is simply seen as “breaking the law” but not “civil disobedience”. Civil disobedience requires "legitimate and carefully chosen means", which could have been illustrated through means of "violence", but is more commonly defined as a type of "nonviolent resistance", Thoreau's "Resistance to Civil Government" in 1849 is the first article in which “civil disobedience” is ever mentioned in a journal and academic article. Thoreau argues that individuals should not allow governments to prevail and that citizens have a “duty” to avoid such violation. Thoreau believed that resistance to unjustly exercised authority could be both violent and nonviolent, and he openly advocated violence in Bleeding Kansas's action to free the slave, stating in a speech that it was "Brown's peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere forcibly with the slaveholder, in order to protect the slave” (1859)” Thoreau “does not wish to kill or be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be unavoidable to me.” He was fervent against slavery and actively supported the abolitionist movement... middle of paper... and hymns were strictly prohibited during the years of Soviet occupation, he demonstrated civil disobedience through large song festivals where patriotic songs were played,. it did not escalate to violence. While Soviet tanks attempted to stop progress towards independence, people acted as human shields to protect radio and television stations from Soviet tanks, which surprisingly did. resolved without bloodshed. The Berkeley free speech movement of the United States of the 1960s was also an important event in which students surrounded the police car in which Jack Weinberg, arrested because he refused to show his documents, was to be transported of identity. Berkeley students remembered this act as one that “organized their peers and employed the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience in creative and powerful ways. ” 2011 Egyptian Revolution 2009 Tibetan Protests 2009 Venezuelan Protests 2014