issue17习作byuu

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TOPIC: 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."
WORDS: 550          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2009-8-17 12:24:30

Law appears along with nation, which came into being only because the conflicts between different groups of interests in a society can not be reconciled. Thus law used to serve as a tool of one group to rule or oppress the others.

Admittedly, in history disobeying and resisting unjust laws plays an important role in pushing the society to move forward. When looking back at how black slaves fought for their freedom and rights deprived by unjust laws in 1860s, and ancient Chinese people rebelled at the emperor’s cruel ruling under whose laws their relatives could be killed for tiny faults and private possessions were always robbed by the government, we witness how disobeying unjust laws helps to make a difference and make the world a better place. It is safe to say that without these resistance, we can hardly live in a world where it is acknowledged that humans are born equal and most basic rights can be effectively protected.

However, in today's world, this kind of behavior is no longer advisable, as discussed below.

On one hand, today in most democratic societies ruling class no longer exists and laws are no longer a tool for someone to oppress the others but serve to represent the public will, which means although sometimes laws may fail to keep pace with time or make subtle chance to meet needs of group with special demands, there is no need to take that extreme measures like disobeying or resisting to change it. People could promote a change in laws in legal ways, like writing letters to governors. In democratic society the function of law is to ensure the society is in order, to achieve this everybody's discontents are highly valued by governors. Legal way helps avoid disorder, which jeopardize the stability of a society and in turn will affect interest of every member in it.

On the other hand, the process of globalization and the merging of different culture have made it harder and harder for people to reach a consensus on the definition of justice and injustice. We usually define what conflicts with our moral values as unjust. But gone are the days when laws were served for one certain group of people sharing the same moral standard and religion. In today's world, chances are that people with totally different cultural background have to live under the same laws, then how can the laws accord with everybody’s moral value when different, or even opposite standards coexist in a society? Examples are not far to find, let's take euthanasia for example, for some people this is acceptable and appears as a sign of being humane, while for others, especially for someone who believes in a religion strictly forbidding euthanasia, this is totally shameful and should be banned. Here comes the dilemma for law-makers, bolster or object, they must have a position, yet whatever the position is, the laws will always be unjust for someone. Usually after weighting advantages and disadvantages, the law-maker will choose a position maximize the overall interest of a society. Aware of this, it is easy to find out that disobeying and resisting any law one agrees with is a behavior very, very selfish.

To sum up, although disobeying and resisting unjust law is admirable in history, in today's world it is no longer a good idea.

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