How Disobedience is The Foundation of Liberty

Introduction

When I was 13, I learned there are certain topics someone shouldn't mention to other people. The three forbidden topics: politics, sex, religion. People don't mention these topics for how personal they are but by how controversial they can be. If opinions clash into each other, your opinion can go against popular sovereignty. Opinions, choices, studies, or life processes are consistent with the principles that govern society had given to them. This can be explained by the term disobedience-ignorance of the consequences of showing one’s opinions that may be taboo to the group ones in and share them anyway. However, Irish author Oscar Wilde observed that disobedience promotes social progress. In fact, disobedience is not only a valuable human trait to promote social progress, but also, as Henry David Thoreau states, is the true foundation of liberty.

Disobedience in Childhood and Adolescence

As children and then adolescents, we have to decide what rules to obey and what authority figures to follow. Conscientious parents teach kids to obey authority without realizing that, at a young age, our surroundings are revolved around the counterpart - disobedience. Our parents might teach us society’s way of good and bad - “listen to your parents and your life will be good”, “listen to authority, they are a major force”, or “do what you are supposed to do, that is the only right way”. But at the same time, we are in contact with disobedience in every way, one being movies. Mulan is a Disney movie that shows the life of Mulan, a young woman trying to find who she is since she feels she doesn't fit in the Chinese cultural role of women. When her dad is called to go to war, she knows he is too weak and not be able to make it back, so she goes instead of him, knowing that the penalty of finding out she is not a man is death. Mulan disobeys her family and the whole Chinese society to save her country and in the way, she found her true self. There are several movies that are based on social disobedience. This movie shows that not doing what you are told, not doing the more “moral”, more “effective”, and more “human course” way, one might find themselves. This disobedience is not simply a rebellion but an essential journey to self-discovery and growth.

Disobedience in Education

Another example of adults telling teenagers what's right takes place at school. In US history class, students are taught of the historical events that happened in order for the US to be what it is today. However, history was made with the help of disobedience, which helped create the US. We are often told that the laws are meant to follow and obey, although some laws are unjust, we are, as a society, supposed to live by them. Yet, history shows that disobedience provides a check against totalitarianism by showing that citizens won't follow unjust laws. Disobedience is not bad or good either by nature or by deduction. Disobedience is just a trait that every living species possesses that can increase power to resist the flaws of society. Rosa Parks was a black woman who is considered to be the mother of civil rights. She was sitting on a bus, waiting for her stop when a white man got into the bus and she was asked to stand up. The buses at the time were segregated, which means there is a higher place to gold (white) than to silver (black). She disobeys the order and was sent to prison. A bus boycott was taken in place which eventually leads to the fight for civil rights for all the people that were deprived of their natural rights. This act of defiance was not just about a bus seat; it was about challenging an entire system of racial oppression and injustice.

Conclusion

According to history, a form of disobedience - social or civil - has to be done in order for the world to change, in order for the world to progress. As Oscar Wilde affirms, “it is through disobedience that progress is made, through disobedience and through rebellion”. Disobedience is, without a doubt, a “man’s original virtue” to progress and obtain the liberty that society has brutally taken away, just for the people to take it back. The courage to question and the willingness to act against unjust norms are what pave the way for societal evolution.

References

Wilde, O. (n.d.). The Soul of Man under Socialism.

Thoreau, H. D. (1849). Civil Disobedience.

Disney. (1998). Mulan. Walt Disney Pictures.

Parks, R. (1992). Rosa Parks: My Story. Dial Books.