ISSUE17 "There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws."
The speaker classifies the laws into two categories, just ones and unjust ones, and he advocates that every individual has a responsibility to obey the former, even more importantly, to disobey and resist the later. I basically disagree with this opinion. There is no doubt that every person should obey just laws, but it is more complex when it comes to unjust laws.
Laws reflect the wills of a class who takes power of the country, and they are established to control the behaviour of the state members, so as to keep the country stable, peaceful and orderly. How can we define a law to be an unjust one? For people of certain class, the law, in advantage of other classes, which impairs their interests, is an unjust law. For individual persons, the law, founded by mass according social public opinions, traditions or religions, which conflicts with his or her own belief or habit, or the law violating basic human rights and harmful to human beings could be condider an unjust law. Should people disobey and resist these laws? We could not simply get a conclusion. The answer shifts according to the specifics.
Obviously, some kind of unjust laws ought to be resisted. For instance, totalitarian government often makes strict laws to maintain their rule, and these laws neglect individual rights such as freedom, liberty, and equality. In this case, every individual has a responsibility to disobey and resist unjust laws. For another example, in 1950s in south American, black people should gave their sets to white man who want them. But one day a black woman named Rosa Park refused to do so, and she was arrested by police. Her disobedience aroused national claim for indiscrimination of black man and led to equal rights of all Americans. Individual disobedience and resisting of unjust laws benefits us significantly, and the society could not make progress without this personal striving. So it is important for individual to disobey and resist unjust laws.
But we can get different conclusion in other circumstances. The law in American which requests people to drive on the right side of road could be consider unjust for English who are used to drive on the left, for it is a personal choice to decide which side to drive on. But if people disobey this law and choose randomly, the traffic could be troublesome and result in a disaster. Also the law forbidding abortion is another example. Some American states pass the law to forbid abortion for it violates christian principle, but for those do not believe in God, it is just personal affairs to induce an abortion. What should they do facing this embarrassment, obey or disobey the law?
To sum up, every individual has a responsibility to obey just laws, but when it comes to unjust laws, the answer is more complex, and it depends on the specifics.