issue17【jet小组】第八次作业

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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."
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I agree with the speaker, to some extent, that one in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws, and unjust laws still exist. However, whether individual is supposed to disobey and resist unjust laws is dubious.

Throughout the whole human history, once a society is formed, people need disciplines to restrict their daily activities. Since virtue is the highest discipline, laws are the base line of individual’s activities. Without these disciplines, the dark side of humanity would appear and people would be controlled by their greedy, hypocrisy, vanity, lust, and the like. In this circumstance, the society might step into extinction. To avoid this tragedy become reality, to much extent, individual is required to obey these disciplines.

What is more, there are just laws and unjust laws. As far as we know, no one is perfect and impeccable. Since the laws are legitimated by people, it is inevitable that some laws are not as good as what we wish. People who draft laws is hard to consider every aspect of the society and everyone in it, so sometimes they overlooked a bit of details when they are legitimating laws. Therefore, unjust laws are made and they function to the society with just laws. Moreover, though in many circumstance, legislatures are try their best to protect laws equal, one can not deny that in some societies, legislatures do not keep equal for their inhumane aims. This is also another reason for the existence of unjust laws, though the most laws are just. In short words, the two kinds of laws co-exist in societies.

However, should we definitely disobey and resist unjust laws? I think the answer is no. Each society is a complex existence. It consists of various people with diverse religions, values, statuses, social hierarchies, and the like. In this situation of society, just and unjust is relative. A law is just to a certain group of people, while it might be unjust to another group of people. An absolutely equality to everyone in the society is hard to achieve. If people simply disobey and resist laws which is recognized unjust by them, they might ruin a larger group people’s equality, since these laws are equal to the larger group.

What we should do is not simply disobey unjust laws. It needs our carefully treating with them. There is no doubt that we should obey just laws, since they restrict our manners and keep our society develops healthy. However, when people claim that a law is unjust to them, they are supposed to examine that whether the law is unjust to a large group of people in the society or is unjust to a small group. If this law is unfair to a few people, disobey it to gain equality for them and destroy much more people’s equality in return might not be a smart choice.

In sum, laws consist of just and unjust ones. One should firstly try to obey them. When they find that some laws are unfair to them, they are supposed to cogitate carefully to decide how to treat with these laws.